


Five Soda Maximum

by chaya



Series: M9 Beverage Series [1]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Anxiety, Background Relationships, Beau/Yasha - Background, Fjord/Jester - Background, Food Issues, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-06-08 15:09:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 36,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15246009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaya/pseuds/chaya
Summary: Someone asked for: High school AU with Molly and Caleb, each wishing they had the guts to ask the other to prom.And you know what? Sometimes I'm going to write perfectly canon things, and sometimes I'm going to write the ridiculous things that make people happy. So here we are.





	1. Chapter 1

“I talked to Beau. He lives in a  _foster home_ ,” Nott says, giving Caleb a significant look before stuffing more sandwich into her mouth.

Caleb frowns. “What is ‘foster home’?”

“Like, a group home, for kids who don’t have parents.” 

“Ah. Orphanage?”

“Sort of.” Nott grabs her soda and catches Caleb’s concerned glance. “It’s only my  _third today_ ,” she says quickly. “I’m fine.”

The boy grunts but lets it pass. “Isn’t, um. The big senior girl. She also has no parents, yes?”

“With the dyed hair? Yeah,  _stay away from her_.”

Caleb shudders. “You do not need to say to me. She is … scary.”

Nott draws her shoulders up and shudders too. “Yeah, well, even more to the point. Molly’s almost definitely from the same home. Bad news.”

“Bad news,” Caleb says, trying the English phrase out and rubbing his chin. “We are also, yes? Bad news?”

“I mean, you haven’t done anything  _wrong_ , you’re just a recent refugee. Who’s super poor.” Nott shrugs. “No offense.”

Caleb shrugs back. “Poor immigrants. Rough home life, ja? So, same as a fosting home.”

“Foster home.”

“Ja. Danke. Foster home.” He pulls out his notebook, scribbling the phrase in the back with the other phrases. He’ll get these right. He will.

“You’re learning faster,” Nott says, jerking her chin at his notebook. “You’re doing really great.”

Caleb rolls his eyes, pushing his hair out of his eyes. “I have good teacher. She is very patient.”

They sit in silence a while, looking down from the bleachers as the football team runs another drill. Caleb isn’t very knowledgable on American football yet, but he knows it’s unusual to have girls and boys play together.

“That one there is very good,” he says, pointing. “With the horns sticking from helmet. They have knocked down the one with the ball again. Third time.”

Nott looks up and squints. “That’s Jester.”

Caleb thinks back in his mental rolodex. “Blue? She is foreign also, yes? I have heard her talk in the hallway.”

“Dual citizenship. Her mom’s some kind of ambassador.” Nott waves her hand around in the way Caleb’s learned means ‘fancy’ or ‘money’ or both.

“Her clothes look very… teuer. Um.” Caleb snaps several times and frowns.

“Stop being so hard on yourself. You’ve been here less than a  _month_.”

“Yes, but I learned some back home, and I… um. Opposite of ‘cheap’.”

“Expensive. Her clothes look expensive.”

“Yes! Thank you.”

“ _Eat_  something.” Nott pushes his bag toward him. “At least the apple.”

“Okay, okay.” He sighs and pushes down the anxiety roiling in his stomach, digging out the fruit and taking a few bites. It’s not as bad as he thought. “There are more signs for, um. Prom. On the walls.”

“I told you, we are  _not_  wanted there.” Nott cuts her hand horizontally through the air. “That’s for … for Jesters. And Fjords.”

“Fjord’s family works on boats,” Caleb argues. “They are not rich.”

Nott’s eyes widen. “You talked to someone!”

Caleb shrugs, shy. “Same history class. He is nice. The teacher talks very fast, he lets me peek at his notes.”

“That’s great! I’m so happy for you! You’re getting brave.”

Caleb looks down at his apple, slowly turning into a core. “I am not brave.”

“You are. You’re trying new things. You signed up for that robotics class, you’re taking risks.” Nott rubs his shoulder, and after a moment of hesitation he lets himself lean into it, making her grin. “You’re doing great.”

“Thank you, Nott.”

They look out over the field again as they hear the gym doors opening - a small group of kids jog out, grabbing the old picnic table by the parking lot and pulling out an assortment of phones, lighters, and cigarette packs. Caleb’s face reddens instantly and he turns, chewing his apple in the opposite direction and pretending to take great interest in coach Felid trying to get someone else to stand in for Jester to tackle.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nichts.”

“Not nothing.” Nott peers around, focusing again on the new gaggle of students, and spots a familiar purple tiefling in ripped jeans and multi-color crop top. “Oh.  _Oh_.”

“It is nothing.”

“ _That’s_  why you wanted me to find out about him.”

Caleb scrubs his face with his free hand. “I am, um. I am not supposed to… to like…”

“Your parents wouldn’t like it?”

“No. They would not.”

Nott frowns. “They should shove it.”

Caleb barks out a hollow laugh. “I do not know that phrase, but. The way you say it. I know it.”

“They should  _shove_  it,” Nott repeats, standing up on a higher bleacher so she’s eye level. “You should be allowed to be happy!”

Caleb cringes. “Nott, you are very-”

“More AP classes! More extracurriculars! All A’s all the time! They should let you have fun!”

“Nott, please.”

“I understand your family’s under a lot of pressure to succeed, but if you want to date a ridiculous drama kid with stupid shit on his horns you should be allowed to!”

Caleb looks like he’s ready to have a breakdown, and that’s when Nott realizes that her voice, which always carries, is the only thing echoing on the football pitch, and the team and the kids at the picnic table have all stopped what they’re doing to stare at her.

“Oh,” she says, staring back. “Oh, fuck.”

**

“Fjord,” Nott hisses, grabbing his arm as he comes down the hallway. “ _You’re_  a boy.”

“I… am,” Fjord says, sounding extremely concerned.

“Sorry, just. Do me a favor?” Nott points behind her to the men’s room. “I can’t go in there.” She reaches up to him with a folded up piece of paper.

“You want me to … put this in the bathroom?”

“Give it to  _Caleb_ , please.”

Fjord blinks a few times. “New kid,” he says finally. “Red hair. Russian.”

“German. Yes. He’s in there. The note. Please?”

“O-okay.” Fjord takes the message, disappearing into the bathroom for about twenty seconds before coming out again, note-less. “Is he okay?”

“I was just about to ask _you_ ,” Nott admits.

Fjord shrugs. “He’s got that flat tone all the time, s’hard for me to tell.” He makes a face. “Is this because of what happened at lunch?”

“I totally fucked up,” Nott says into her palms. “I super duper completely fucked up.”

“That sucked,” Fjord mutters, empathetic, and looks back to the bathroom door. “Well, he’s not cryin’ or anything, he’s just in a stall and not talking.” A beat. “He did take the note.”

“Did you say it was from me?”

“Yeah.”

“And he still took it.”

“He took the note.”

“Maybe he flushed it.”

“I didn’t hear a flush.” Fjord sighs and kneels down. “Listen, uh. Ever since the school…” He lowers his voice. “Found out about your family…”

Nott cringes.

“…I know it’s been hard for you, and, um. Just so you know, me and Jester and Beau, we hang out on the grass outside the cafeteria exit between classes.”

Nott looks up, eyes red-rimmed. “…really?”

“Yeah. And.” He tilts his head toward the bathroom. “Bring him too. He seems nice.”

“He  _is_  nice,” she agrees miserably. “He’s  _so nice_.”

“Does he know about-”

“Everyone in this entire fucking town knows about my family, Fjord.” Nott sniffles and rubs at her face. “Sorry. You didn’t deserve that.”

“S’okay. Beau hates her family too, you know. They didn’t get, um. they didn’t get in trouble with the law or anything, but maybe if you need someone to vent to, you could talk with her.” Fjord straightens up, looking down the hall. “Anyway, I’ve got History.”

Nott thinks back. “Doesn’t that mean Caleb has History?”

“Yeah, actually.” They both look to the door. “I don’t know if he’s comin’ out yet.”

Nott makes a pained sound.

“Wait, why don’t you just text him?”

“His parents won’t get him a phone until his _first report card_  comes in.”

Fjord sucks in some air through his teeth. “Poor kid.”

“ _I know._ ”

**

When the final bell rings, Nott intercepts Caleb on his walk to the bus stop.

“I’m really sorry,” she pants, catching up with him.

Caleb shrugs and says something indecipherable, adjusting his back pack strap. At least he’s only using one strap now. That’s one thing Nott’s done right for him.

“I feel like shit. I’m so sorry.”

“I missed History,” Caleb says, dragging his sneaker against the sidewalk a few inches.

Something in Nott’s head clicks. “ _Shit_.”

“Ja. But. But.” He looks around a moment, ensuring the coast is clear, before kneeling down and holding her by the shoulders. “You  _saved my ass_ , Nott.”

“I did? I - how? How did I?”

“I did what you said! They said, ‘detention, after school,’ and I said please do not, and they said yes, and I said, I was late, not… not  _never_ in class, but the teacher is strict, and so I-” Caleb laughs disbelievingly. “-I cry and talk about my homeland and how, um, how stressful America is, and I am trying to learn the rules and I miss my home…”

“Yes!” Nott hisses. “You played your card!”

“Yes!” Caleb looks around several times again. “I - I can take detention… at lunch? Tomorrow? And so I will get home on time, and so my parents never know yes?”

“Right,” Nott confirms.

“Detention is not on report cards, right? You said?”

“Right,” Nott nods several times. “Good job, Caleb!”

He beams at her, and in a flat out shocking moment that could never be predicted, he lets go of her shoulders, leaning in  _closer_  and  _hugging_  Nott.

“I am not mad at you,” he says into her shoulder. “You are my best friend.”

Slowly, after weeks of giving Caleb as much personal space as possible, Nott reaches her hands up and finally lets herself hold him tightly. “You’re mine too,” she says.

“But I will not be at our lunch date tomorrow.”

“It’s okay. You played the shit out of that teacher. I’m so proud of you.”

**

Nott has nobody to eat with at lunch the next day, so she sits under the bleachers and drinks as much soda as she feels like.

When a little dwarf girl pokes her head into the shadows, Nott assumes she’s lost.

“Who’re you looking for?” Nott asks, trying to sound less like a scary scratchy-voiced goblin and more like someone who can help a kid find her way.

“I don’t know his name,” the girl admits, and rubs her nose.

“How… old are you?”

The girl points to the fence that divides the high school from the middle school. “I’m from over there,” she says, and  _that_ makes sense. Dwarf kids are tiny, but this kid is  _tiny_  tiny. “But I come over here a lot, to hang out with my big brothers and sisters.”

“And you don’t know your big brothers’ and sisters’ names?” Nott squints.

“No, I know them, I know where they are.” She’s looking at Nott’s bag of M&Ms and seems to be trying to figure out if she can ask for some. “I’m looking for a human. A boy human.”

“We’ve got a lot of those at this school,” Nott says, a little sarcastically. “Most people around here are humans, you’re old enough to know that.”

“But this was a human that hung out with a goblin.” She shuffles a little. “And there… aren’t many goblins around here. No offense.”

Nott shrugs. “Caleb’s a human, he’s new. Red hair, tall.”

“Is he the one that likes my brother?”

Nott’s ears fall back. “What?”

“I wasn’t supposed to hear, but somebody at school likes my brother, and I don’t want my brother dating somebody who’s dumb, or mean, or, you know.” She crosses her arms. “And  _prom’s_  coming up. So I have to find out soon.”

This isn’t the conversation she was expecting to have. “I don’t know who your brother is, but Caleb is great, and smart, and anyone would be lucky to date him.”

“Do  _you_  want to-”

“Ew! No.”

The girl giggles. “You’re funny.”

She smiles back. “I’m Nott.”

“You  _are!”_

“No, I’m Nott. That’s my name.”

“I’m Toya.” She bites her lip. “Can I have an M&M?”

**

Right before final period, Nott catches Caleb in the stairwell and is grinning delightedly.

“I have  _intel_ ,” Nott hisses. “I have  _secret intel!_ I’m an  _investigator!_ ”

“Investigator,” Caleb echoes uncertainly. “Like, um, Sherlock Holmes?”

“Yes! Better! Meet me at the gazebo after school!”


	2. Chapter 2

“His little sister?”

“His little  _foster_  sister,” Nott corrects. “She’s at the same foster home. Apparently it’s a good one! Some suck.”

“Good? Like, um, they are happy?” Caleb sits at one of the gazebo benches, struggling to process all of this.

“Yeah.” Nott nods excitedly and joins him. “Yasha  _is_  from the same one. And a bunch of others. Apparently this Gustav guy that runs it got recognition for - he got  _known_  for being good with problem kids, so they get sent from all over the state.”

Caleb bites his lip. “And so, Toya knows Molly well?”

“Yes. She says he hasn’t been at Gustav’s very long but he’s definitely nice. Oh - you know Bosun? The huge half orc guy on the team with Jester?”

“Ja, he is, um, he has all the…” Caleb gestures to his face, miming facial hair.

“Yeah! He’s a foster kid too! I had no idea. I mean, I never talk to the seniors, especially the ones over six feet tall, but. Anyway, when Toya was trying to rehab this dog, Kylre, it got really aggressive and cornered her in the back yard and  _Molly_ , he grabbed her and jumped the fence! The six foot fence! With her!”

Caleb leans in. “What? Really?”

“Yeah!” Nott gesticulates wildly. “Gustav made her give the dog up to some … place, for shitty dogs, I don’t remember the name, but Toya says she totally would have gotten bitten if Molly hadn’t been there.”

“Why was a little girl … rehabbing… is that the word? Rehabbing a dog?”

“She loves animals and she’s super good with them,” Nott says with a shrug. “She’s done baby squirrels, and dogs, and she’s got a feral cat right now and the cat hates  _everyone_  but her, and she’s trying to get it ready to get adopted, but, um, I’m getting off topic here.”

“You talked with the girl a lot,” Caleb hazards.

“All lunch. She’s really sweet.” Nott perks up. “I sold you really well.”

“You - what?”

“I told her how smart you are, and how quickly you’ve learned English, and how you were in all special classes back home and how you’re in almost all AP classes here, and-”

“Why did - why did you say all these things?”

“She came over to ask about you,” Nott explains. “She really loves Molly and she wanted to check on whoever had a crush on him.”

Caleb looks mortified. “ _Even middle schoolers know I have a… crush?”_

Nott waves her hands quickly. “Only the foster kid ones! Not all of them!”

“Scheisse,” Caleb mutters into his hands. “Scheisse scheisse scheisse.”

“Hey. Hey. It’s okay.” Nott scoots over on the bench and pats his shoulder awkwardly. “Um, Molly likes boys!”

Caleb peeks through his fingers. “He… does?”

“He has a poster of some guy Toya doesn’t know over his bed,” Nott reports. “And also, like, have you seen him. He definitely isn’t straight.”

“He is a tiefling. Who is in theater club. I cannot make this guess.”

“Well, everyone else ‘made this guess’, and they were totally right. I don’t know if he likes girls or not but he  _definitely_  likes boys.”

“That is, um, something.” Caleb hides his hands in his sleeves and looks ahead. “Did he talk about me? Is that what Toya heard?”

“No, she heard Bosun talking about it to Yasha. She said Yasha said that she was at the picnic table and she only heard part of it but  _Bosun_  was on the  _field_ so he, um, he heard me better, again, super sorry, and so  _Toya_  said that  _Yasha_  was asking  _Bosun_  if he knew the girl who trashed Molly’s horns, or the guy she was talking to who had the crush.”

Caleb takes a long, deep breath. “Nott.”

“Yeah?”

“Please say that all again but slower.”

Nott does.

“So… Molly’s brothers and sisters are trying to know who we are, but we are so unpopular that… nobody knows.”

“Yeah!”

“That is… kind of a blessing?” Caleb see-saws his hand, smiling awkwardly.

“But  _now_  they know,” Nott adds happily.

Caleb pales. “Toya will tell them all?”

“That you’re very smart, you’re in a ton of AP classes-”

“No! No!” Caleb stands up. “None of that is cool!”

“You’re cool!” Nott reassures him. “You’re… you’re foreign!”

“I am a dork! I am in robotics class! My - wie sagt man - my  _locker_  door has pictures of  _cute cats!”_

“You’re great!” Nott insists. “You could help Molly with his math homework! Apparently he needs a tutor.”

“Tutors are not cool!”

“Okay, you got me there. Um.” Nott wipes her hands on her jeans. “Well, um, we could… we could be cool.”

“Not possible.”

Nott snaps. “We have new friends! Fjord said we could go hang out with him and Jester and Beau. They sit outside the cafeteria door.”

Caleb looks in that direction. “What? Really? When?”

“Between classes, free periods, lunch, after school, if they have time.” Nott kicks her legs out on the bench. “We could go see if they’re there!”

“Why did they offer this? Is it a trap?”

“Fjord wouldn’t,” Nott reassures him. “Or Jester. Beau… might, if she hated us, but she doesn’t. She doesn’t know you at all.”

Caleb is still looking anxiously in the direction of the cafeteria. “I am not good with people.”

“I’ll help.”

“You are… how do you say. Too nice.”

“I majorly fucked you over the other day.”

“Fucked me  _over_ ,” Caleb echoes, frowning.

“It means, um, made things bad for you. In my case, obviously, I fucked you over by accident.” She continues once Caleb nods in understanding. “So, hey, everything I know about those three is pretty okay, so it’s not so risky to stick our necks out and see if we can, you know, grow our social circles? Together?”

“Will you poke me if I am saying a dumb thing?”

“I’ll sit next to you the whole time.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> come hang out on [tumblr](https://ivadeshin.tumblr.com/).


	3. Chapter 3

The cafeteria exit faces the treeline, so there’s no passing traffic or people walking by. The concrete pathway from the door to the parking lot is only ever really used for fire drills, so when Caleb and Nott round the corner, they’re surprised at how much quieter it is than the south side of the building, with sports and picnic benches.

Beau looks up first, pen pausing over a workbook. Caleb waves, but Beau just looks back down at her book. Caleb feels his stomach turn, and he already regrets the half sandwich he ate at lunch.

“Beau,” Fjord’s saying, using his sneaker to nudge her leg. “I invited them. C’mon.”

“Oh. Fuck.” Beau looks up, waving now. “You’re Caleb Weiss, right?”

“Right,” Caleb confirms, still biting back the dissonance at the last name even after all these weeks. “This is Nott.”

Jester looks up from her phone. “Hiiiii!” She leans back in the grass and smacks the spot next to her several times, moving a heavily adorned backpack behind her to widen up the little circle. “We already know Nott, kind of! Caleb, where are you from?”

“Germany.” He sits down in the new spot, crossing his legs and looking down at his torn up sneakers before making himself lift his head and make some eye contact. When Nott plunks down next to him, he feels a bit better. “And you?”

“Romania, but mostly here.” Her tail curls around her, snaking up to the workbook that Beau’s leaning over again and gently smacking it. Beau makes an annoyed noise but puts it down. “Fjord and Beau are regular Americans. Do you like it here?”

Caleb nods. “Everyone at school is very nice. It is, um. It is strange to see so many non-humans, but it is not, it is not  _bad_ , just different. They are all good. I like non-humans. I am friends with Nott.”

A silence begins to settle, and threatens to crush Caleb into a fine paste of shame and regret.

“Caleb’s still learning English,” Nott pipes up. “In school back home he was taking Sylvan and he only knew English from tv and stuff.”

The other three nod, happy to have something new to work with. Fjord gives a thumbs up.

“You’re doin’ great so far,” he compliments. “Fast-talking teachers aside. That’s gotta be hard.”

“He  _mumbles,_ ” Caleb says, and Fjord and Jester both make pained faces in solemn agreement.

“Enunciate’s a good word,” Beau says thoughtfully. “Kind of long, but. It means to talk clearly.”

“Thank you,” Caleb says, pretending he didn’t already know that word and that people don’t get really thorny when you ask them to do that.

Beau shrugs. “If your homework trips you up, come bring it to us, we’ll help. Well.” She looks over to Nott. “I’m sure you’re already helping him.”

“I can use all the help I can get,” Caleb interjects. “Um. Your history classes are very… focused on America, and I am used to lots of focus on Europe. So a lot of it is quite new. To me.”

Jester is unpacking a small embroidered bag with cosmetics. “Nott, have you tried the new MAC Cool Exotics collection?”

Nott blinks several times. “…no,” she says, clearly not sure what she just responded to.

Jester holds up a small palette of colors from light green to deep purple. The box is sleek and black, and Caleb thinks back to the word  _expensive_. “MAC does the best colors for non-humans. They do warm collections and cool collections, and you are green, so you are ‘cool’, like me.” She leans in and squints. “What is your skin routine?”

Beau makes a pained noise. “Don’t make her do girly stuff with you,” she groans.

Fjord laughs and shakes his head. “You don’t have to,” he tells Nott. “She’s a little makeover obsessed. Blame YouTube.”

“It’s okay,” Nott says quickly, shocking Caleb. “I just, um, is it okay if I don’t know anything?”

“That’s even better because then she gets to teach you.” Beau snorts. “We’re doomed. Caleb, she’s going to have you moisturizing and wearing sunscreen soon.”

He touches his face. “Am I sun scorched?”

“Sunburned,” Nott murmurs under her breath, scooting over to move between Caleb and Jester.

“Sunburned,” Caleb corrects quickly.

“No, she’s just excited to slap BB cream and CC cream and …” Beau shares a look with Fjord. “I don’t know, Korean skincare became a thing and now she’s obsessed.”

“Korean sunscreen is much better for you. They don’t have a lot of the bad chemicals, in it, and also, it doesn’t have that stinky smell.” Jester bites her lip as she pulls out several clips, pinning Nott’s hair away from her face. “Hm. You have an oily complexion.”

“I’m a goblin,” Nott mumbles.

Jester shakes her head. “That’s racist bullshit. Every person has some oil, or dryness, or combination problems. Goblins don’t produce more oils than anybody else. Here.” She pulls out some sort of wet wipe and holds it up to Nott’s face, showing it to her a moment before beginning to wipe her down. Nott makes a face but holds still.

“Can you, um, can you do my eyebrows?”

Caleb can’t hide the look of utter shock at those words, and Nott blushes a little.

“People always think I’m a boy.”

“You should, um. You should,” Caleb gestures to his own face. “You should make your face however you want.”

“I don’t think I would wear makeup every day,” Nott shoots Jester an apologetic glance, but she’s flapping her hand dismissively. “But maybe if. I didn’t feel so greasy. And my eyebrows were a little less messy.”

Beau leans in to Caleb. “You’re trapped here now,” she warns. “You’re a  _project_.”

Caleb looks down at his sneakers. “Oh, no,” he says flatly, and is very, very pleased when his three new friends giggle.

**

They relocate from the bleachers. Caleb learns that if you are rich, you can have a private tutor even though you already go to school. Jester’s is named Mr. Cestovatel and Fjord says, when Jester is not around, that she  _definitely_  has a crush on the guy.

And Jester seems to be loaded, not just by Caleb’s standards, but she doesn’t act the way Caleb would expect. She loans Nott some weird looking skincare bottles to try, and doesn’t laugh at him when he admits he can’t give everyone his number because he doesn’t have a cell phone.

Beau is rude, even by American standards, but she isn’t  _mean_. Fjord is usually punching her arm to remind her to thank someone or pay attention and it seems like she’s mostly sort of trying to get better about it. She seems to pay a lot of attention to the news, and she refers to a Twitter account where she ‘retweets’ things about Antifa, which Nott has to explain to Caleb later.

Fjord is… super nice. It’s clear why so many girls have a crush on him, even though he doesn’t have nice clothes or a lot of money, or play sports. (Caleb is delighted to learn that Fjord is going to be in Robotics class with him once it starts, and is not shocked at all to learn that this, also, is not considered cool.) But Fjord’s voice is low and smooth, and he smiles easily.  He doesn’t get in much trouble and he seems to care about people. Beau says he got bullied when he was younger for being chubby and the only half-orc in his elementary school, and ever since he shot up a million feet and started ‘making thicc look good’, as Jester calls it, he’s been the guy that shows up in hallways.

“The foster house popped up a couple years ago,” Beau says quietly one day, when Fjord isn’t there. “A few assholes used to joke that ‘the circus had come to town’, and you’ll never guess who wasn’t standing for that shit.”

“Standing for,” Caleb echoes, frowning.

Beau sits up a little straighter, deepening her voice and trying to do a southern accent. “That’s enough ‘a that shit,” she mimes, pretending to give him a disapproving look. Caleb’s eyebrows fly up and he grins.

**

Caleb doesn’t have a phone but Nott does, and so Nott will read to him from the group chat sometimes.

“Beau wants to know how to say ‘fuck you’ in German,” Nott reports one day.

“It was only a matter of time,” Caleb sighs.

Nott frowns. “You don’t like it when people do this to you,” she guesses quietly.

“No, it is fine.” And it is, somehow, because it’s been three solid days of hanging out with these people and he… doesn’t feel like a side show at all, now that he thinks about it. He really doesn’t mind. “Fick dich.”

“Ha!” Nott giggles delightedly and hovers her thumbs over the tiny keyboard. “How do you spell that?”

**

It’s Monday at lunch when somebody finally says something.

“You’re too skinny, Caleb.” Jester uses his tail to nudge his lunch bag from the spot he just set it down. “If you don’t like your sandwich you can have some of my wrap!”

Caleb breathes in through his nose and looks down at the grass. In his peripheral vision he sees Nott look up from the Shakespeare book she’s sharing with Beau. “I’m,” he says, but then can’t find the rest of the words.

“Maybe he doesn’t want to talk about it,” Fjord says gently.

Jester’s frowning, and she looks genuinely  _sad_ , which makes Caleb feel worse. “Do you need to talk to somebody? Just so you know, our counselor here is actually really nice.”

“I just get stomach aches,” Caleb says, smiling apologetically. “Eating more makes them, you know, worse.”

Beau looks over at Fjord and squints, and Caleb doesn’t know what that means, but Fjord scratches his cheek and looks away. “There was a real bad storm when I was a kid, and my parents, um, they got stuck out on a ship overnight. They came back fine, but I had heart palpitations for a few weeks.”

“Oh,” Caleb says, and doesn’t want to ask what that means because it seems like a rude thing to do in the middle of such a story. To his relief, Nott is catching his attention, using one hand to subtly mime her heart beating erratically out of her rib cage. “I am sorry.”

Fjord nods. “They’re fine, I was just, you know, a scared kid.” He shrugs. “But sometimes it … I told my parents about the heart thing because I thought I was dyin’, but I’d also just have this pain in my gut, like I was starving and too full at the same time? The doc said it was all part a’ the same thing.”

Caleb nods and frets with his hands. “If it does not get better, I will. Go to the counselor.”

Jester looks relieved, and Nott looks shocked and overjoyed, which Caleb did not expect.

Beau looks… frozen in time, completely unmoving, which is weird.

“What-” Caleb looks over his shoulder to where Beau is staring, and there is (thankfully) something there to stare at. The huge girl with dyed hair is walking over, drinking from a water bottle and looking straight at them.

“Hi,” Jester chips.

“I’m Yasha,” Yasha says, and Caleb feels the bizarre urge to get up and move out of her way even though there is plenty of space toward the treeline, and even though she almost undoubtedly came to  _talk_  to them, not.. walk past them. “Are you Nott?”

Nott’s green skin pales a couple shades, and her ears flatten back. “No,” she says quickly. “I mean, yes. Yes, I’m Nott.”

Yasha looks unsurprised, like people panic and deny who they are in front of her every damn day. Maybe they do. “You talked with Toya a few days ago?”

Nott shrinks down further, now about the size of Jester’s backpack. “Y-yes.”

“You shared your M&Ms with her.”

“Yes.”

Yasha looks left, in the direction of the middle school. “She doesn’t make many friends her age,” she says, and sets her hand on her hip. “She really liked talking with you about her animals.”

“…I’m glad,” Nott squeaks.

“She’s looked for you at the bleachers a few times, but you aren’t there anymore. Is this your new spot?”

“Yes,” Nott says, a little less scared now. “We, um. We sit here now. I didn’t realize she’d come back, I didn’t - I didn’t mean to ditch her.”

Yasha shakes her head. “No problem. The teachers let her jump over here as long as she stays where she can see them, so she asked me to look around for you.” And her face softens a little, and she actually looks a bit apologetic. “She wanted me to ask you if you wanted to come over sometime and see her pets.”

“Oh,” Nott says, and Caleb looks from Nott’s unsure and still scared face, to Yasha’s apologetic and hopeful one, and then to Beau, who is still… frozen.

“I know she’s a little kid, but it would mean a lot to her. If you don’t want to, I can say your parents won’t let you or something.”

Something strange passes over Nott’s face, and she sits up straighter. “I can come over.”

Yasha blinks in surprise, and for the first time Caleb can remember, she grins. “Seriously?”

“Like, after school tomorrow maybe,” Nott says. “If you can give me a ride, or text me the address.”

“I’ll give you a ride in the Kart, just meet me in the parking lot after the bell.” Yasha looks down to the others sitting on the grass. “Anyone who’s interested. We’ve got a PS4.”

Fjord raises a cautious hand. “You’ve got … what kinda pets?”

“He’s super allergic to cats,” Jester stage whispers.

“Oh.” Yasha winces. “Um, maybe sit this one out. Toya’s cat’s been hiding on top of all the tall furniture, I’m sure there’s some fur hanging around in every room.”

“I would die,” Fjord says apologetically.

“No worries.” Yasha looks to the others, frowning a little as her gaze passes over Beau. “But the offer stands to the rest of you. Thanks, Nott.” She turns and walks back the way she came, and they watch her walk until she’s turned the corner and gone.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Nott wheezes, and Jester gives her a sympathetic whack on the back to get some air in her lungs. “I thought I was gonna die. I thought I was gonna die.”

“You’re okay! She likes you!” Jester looks past Nott to Beau. “Is  _Beau_  dead?”

“Tall,” Beau says, to nobody in particular.

“Is Beau  _brain_  dead?” Caleb mumbles, using one of his new English phrases.

Beau says something Caleb can’t hear under her breath, hiding her face in her hands and carding her fingers through her hair several times. Her topknot comes undone.

“Beauregard, you useless lesbian.” Jester points the direction Yasha went. “Is she the one you’ve been freaking out over?”

**

“You should go,” Nott says for the third time, and Caleb shakes his head for the third time.

“I don’t know Toya.”

“Yasha invited  _all_  of us.” Nott pokes him in the side, where he’s extra scrawny, which is deeply unfair.

Caleb scowls and rubs the spot. “I…” He tries to think of a way out. “I will go if  _Beau_  goes.”

Nott scoffs indignantly. “Beau’s not going! Beau’s a huge scaredy cat who’s super gay for that half-giant!”

“She and I are wimps  _together_ ,” Caleb declares, grabbing his textbooks and swanning into Sylvan class before she can get another word in.

**

The next day at free period, Caleb drops his bag down on the grass and is almost settled when he notices that Beau’s hair is brushed, and she has eye makeup on, and she’s wearing a sleeveless shirt, yes, but one that is - it might be silk? It looks fancy. She has a resigned look on her face.

“Where is Nott,” Caleb says urgently, looking around. “ _What did she do._ ”

Jester has what Caleb has learned is called a ‘shit eating grin’. “Nott told me about your deal,” she singsongs, and Caleb feels himself tipping further and further away from her, until he bumps into Fjord.

“You’re gonna have to go,” Fjord says, supporting his shoulder, “but it’ll be fine.”

“You won’t even  _be there_ ,” Caleb hisses. “Are you even allergic against cats?”

“Allergic  _to_ ,” Beau corrects woodenly, in Nott’s absence.

“I am,” Fjord says, and leans back against the brick of the building. “But I’m rooting for both of you. You’re gonna be fine.”

Jester beams. “Beau is wearing my no-makeup makeup routine for olive skin tones, and we went shopping last night and got her a new outfit. She is  _hot shit_.”

Caleb looks down and gestures at the same fucking hoodie he wears every day. “Where is my makeover? I am a garbage human!”

“You don’t have a phone number and nobody knows where you live.” Jester pouts. “But I’ll make you cute now if you want!”

Fjord narrows his eyes. “How do you just  _happen to have_  two different human skin tones in your makeup bag, Jester?”

Jester smiles widely and pulls out her embroidered bag, which looks  _so much heavier_  than the first time Caleb saw it.

**

“Am I still shiny?” Caleb hisses at Beau.

She squints at his face. “No, it absorbed in or whatever. You’re fine.”

Caleb makes a face and scans the parking lot again, finally spotting Nott and sending her the dirtiest look he can possibly conjure.

“Heya,” he says bitterly, using his most American word possible.

“Hi!” Nott says. “How was Math?”

“Fick dich.”

Beau actually snorts, although she quiets down when she sees Caleb’s crossed his arms. “Did you call your parents?” Nott continues.

“I borrowed Jester’s phone,” Caleb says. “Who, by the  _wayyyy_ , thank you  _sooo_  much for telling her what I told you.”

“Let’s just face our deaths together,” Beau mutters.

“I don’t know what you are so scared about,” Caleb says, redirecting his irritation. “You are all, ‘ohh I do yoga every morning and look like it,’ ‘ohh my haircut is so cool, so edgy,’“

“ _Damn_ , Caleb.”

“Sorry.” Caleb hugs his arms closer to himself. “I just mean, you are fine, someone could like you.”

Beau looks ready to say something to that, but Nott smacks her leg and they turn to see Yasha pulling up in an enormous Oldsmobile with chipped paint. It looks like some sort of ancient mechanical beast. And… kind of sounds like it, too.

“Hop in,” Yasha says, and Caleb opens the enormous metal door and holds it open for the girls, who push the front seat forward and start to crawl in. “Is this all of you?”

“Jester has her tutor today, and Fjord is very allergic.” Caleb starts to push the front seat back into place, but Yasha shakes her head.

“We’re waiting on one more, do you mind getting in the back too?”

“It’s like a van back here,” Nott reports. “Two vans. Two vans side by side.”

Yasha smiles a little. “The Kart’s pretty big,” she agrees, and pushes the front seat back into place once Caleb has gotten in next to Nott. Nott is fiddling with the middle seatbelt, and her heels barely reach the edge of the seat.

“Why do you call it the Kart?” Caleb asks.

“We bought her used and there were a bunch of Mario and Yoshi stickers on the inside of the little windows back there.” Yasha points. “So we called it the Mario Kart, and then just the Kart.” She looks back to Caleb. “They have Mario Kart in Germany, right?”

Caleb nods fervently. “I am Shy Guy.”

“You  _are_ ,” Nott whispers, and Caleb elbows her in the bicep.

“Who, um,” Beau clears her throat awkwardly. “Who do you main?”

Yasha shrugs. “I usually just watch the others play.”

Beau nods, and then looks down at her knees like she said the stupidest fucking thing possible. Caleb takes pity on her.

“How much longer will Bosun be?”

“Bosun jogs. We’re waiting on Molly.” She squints at the ancient clock on the dashboard. “Should be any minute.”

“Oh,” Nott says, like this is an interesting anecdote and not something that is the worst possible thing in the entire world.


	4. Chapter 4

Caleb starts experiencing auditory hallucinations, which, at this point, stands to reason.

“Wilkooommen!” Someone is singing nearby. “Bienvenue! Welcome!” The voice is coming closer, and then Caleb is yanked out of his dissociation when the huge Oldsmobile door is swung open and a colorful bundle of  _something_  tumbles in. “Fremde! Entrager! Stranger!”

Yasha looks unimpressed, and reaches over to the bundle and unplugs something just as the bundle straightens out into a person, with jewelry-adorned horns and a turquoise shirt. Music starts to play from the boy’s phone on tinny speakers, and he continues singing as he shuts the door.

“Glückliiich zu sehen, je suis enchanté! [Happy, to see! You](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DKW5eFCFnW9c&t=YmYyODVlODU5MmM1OTczNjhmZDM0NWEwOTBjNjU1NjUyMmJlYzQ2MixPeDliSE5TMw%3D%3D&b=t%3ALUwo4XTzF64TobA0V6AclQ&p=https%3A%2F%2Fivadeshin.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F175798363230%2Ffive-soda-maximum-high-school-au-pt-5&m=1)!” Still looking toward the windshield, he leans over exaggeratedly, and Yasha leans over and pecks him on the cheek.

“Guests,” she says, and jerks her chin to the back seat. He turns around, earbuds still in, and blinks at the three of them.

“Fuck!” he says good naturedly. “Sorry, I’m so rude! Hi!”

Caleb, who is now facing the window and has pulled his hoodie up to hide his red cheeks, waves without looking.

“Hey,” Beau says. “Are we doing Cabaret this year?”

“No, but it’s my audition song.” As Yasha drives out of the parking lot, Molly is zeroing on Nott. “Are you the girl Toya wanted to hang out with? Yasha, you found her?”

Yasha blinks, not looking away from the road. “I forgot I didn’t tell you! Yeah, she hangs out by the cafeteria exit now, that’s why Toya could never find her again.”

Molly fiddles with his phone and the music stops. “That’s so sweet. Nott, right?”

“Yeah,” Nott says, waving a little. “Um, this is Beau, and this-”

“Hi,” Caleb says, in a very weak American accent.

Molly frowns, leaning around the giant front seat and finally getting a good look at Caleb, who turns back to the window. “I’ve seen you before,” he says slowly.

“Probably not,” Beau says quickly. “He’s super new.”

“Really really new, like,” Nott laughs awkwardly. “Practically flew in yesterday.”

Molly’s tail, which has raised up in curiosity, curls down a little. “Oh, I thought I saw you in the library a few times talking to Mr. Sol.”

“Maybe,” Caleb says evasively. The car bumps a little as it goes into a new parking lot, and Caleb frowns as he realizes they’ve only driven for about a minute and this isn’t a residential area. “Where…”

“We’re picking up Toya,” Yasha explains, pulling up in a long line of minivans.

“Oh, shit.” Molly scans the back seat. “Where can I go? I usually have the back to myself.”

Nott shares a look with Beau and unbuckles her seatbelt, climbing into the other girl’s lap. Caleb finds himself desperately hungry for the cold embrace of death.

“Thanks! Okay, here we go.” He pulls the earbuds out, tucking his phone into the enormous cupholder space at the front and then crawling into the middle seat in the back. Beau shoots Caleb a significant look while this is occurring, which might mean  _DON’T FUCK THIS UP_  or  _I AM ALSO DYING_ , he’s not sure.

“Sorry,” Molly says, laughing, and spins in place and tucks his feet in so he doesn’t accidentally kick anyone. Caleb gets a weird rush when he feels Molly’s arm bump his through his hoodie. “Okay, okay, we’re good.” He picks up the two halves of the seatbelt and jams them together. “Yasha, you  _mom_.”

Yasha, who has been watching this process and not moving the car forward until Molly was belted in again, flicks him the bird and turns back to the road, scooting forward another five feet.

“Why isn’t Toya making friends?” Beau asks, a little randomly. Molly turns to her and Caleb’s grateful for the distraction. Molly smells like some kind of citrusy hair gel and a little bit of sweat, and he can’t stop blushing.

“She’s kind of…” Molly seesaws his hand. “She got moved around a lot before she came to us, she got bullied a lot for being little and shy.”

“That’s awful,” Nott says.

“Yeah, we’re glad she’s here with us now. This middle school’s okay, but she’s used to, like, interacting with kids her age as little as possible.”

“So she hangs out with animals,” Beau finishes. Molly nods.

“Someone brought us a duck once. The bird sanctuary isn’t open to the public on weekends and she’s already got a local reputation from her Instagram.”

“Instagram?” Caleb asks, before he can remember to keep his mouth shut.

Molly turns, bright red eyes delighted at the interest. “I’ll show you,” he says, and unbuckles himself so he can lean forward ( _don’t look don’t look don’t look_ )  and grab his phone from the cupholder. He fiddles with it for a while, then hands it over for Caleb to look at.

Caleb cradles the phone reverently and scrolls through. There are various pictures taken by a little girl, very low to the ground. Some are selfies with dogs, and others are of eggs in some kind of machine, and some of squirrels on tree branches.

“So, some are just animals she has seen,” Caleb says, pointing.

“That’s Nibbles!” Molly’s grins widely, fangs pearly white. “He got torn up by this neighborhood dog and Toya nursed him for a week. Now he’s back on his feet, squirreling it up.”

“That’s  _fucking adorable_ ,” Beau enthuses, just as the Oldsmobile door opens a few inches, then a couple inches more.

“Hi, sweetheart,” Yasha says to a small figure.

“Hi Yasha,” Toya says, shoving the door open a few more inches and finally able to clamber in. Yasha leans over her as the little girl clicks in her seatbelt, grabbing the door and hauling it shut for her. “Hi, Mol- oh my gosh!”

Yasha and Molly laugh as Toya’s face brightens at the sight of the back seat. “Anyone you recognize?” Yasha asks, ruffling her hair.

Toya giggles excitedly and waves to Nott. “Hi! Yasha didn’t tell me she found you!”

“I wanted to surprise you,” Yasha says warmly.

The apples of Toya’s cheeks rise up. “This is a  _great_  surprise! H-hi, I’m Toya.”

“I’m Beau,” Beau says.

“I’m Caleb,” Caleb says, because there is no escaping this.

Molly turns to him. “Are you German?” When Caleb doesn’t answer immediately, he cocks his head. “Sorry, um. Austrian?”

“No, German, I am German.” He hands the phone back, taking one last moment to admire the day-glo purple case.

Molly hops excitedly in his seat and smacks the back of Yasha’s seat excitedly. “You can be my Alan Cumming!”

Nott’s eyes round. “ _What?_ ”

“Alan Cumming!” Molly repeats. “I suck at French and German so I just mimic him when I sing in Cabaret, and, technically Alan’s Scottish, but  _whatever_ , he makes all the lines sound sexy, and,” Molly turns back to Caleb, who does not know how to handle so much energy and excitement being directed his way. “Would you mind? If I practiced my accent with you?”

“We kidnapped them for Toya, not for you,” Yasha reminds him.

“It’s, um,” Caleb shrugs. “It’s not a big deal, I can… you sound fine. I mean, when you sang earlier.”

Molly throws himself against the back seat dramatically and sighs. “I’ve got the first minute or so down  _pat,_  but it’s sort of, harder? When the Emcee is talking in English but with a German accent? I want to sound like  _you_ ,” he clarifies.

Caleb opens his mouth to respond, but nothing comes out; Nott, ever the best friend in existence, is on the case:

“Caleb’s a great teacher. Back home he was a student aid for the programming classes, and he’d help the other kids  _his age and older._ ”

“Wow,” Beau says, uncharacteristically carrying on the conversation to buy Caleb some time. “So you must be excited for the Robotics class next month.”

“J-ja,” Caleb says, nodding several times more than necessary. “You know, um. Coding, it is. It is okay.”

“Coding’s a  _great_  skill,” Molly enthuses. “Everyone wants tech-savvy people these days. And with multiple languages! That’s a great skill too.”

“Multiple means  _three or more_ ,” Toya says, as if reciting from a textbook.

“Caleb also knows Sylvan,” Nott counters. “It’s even better than his English.”

“That’s so cool,” Toya says. “I, um, I only know a little Dwarvish.”

Molly’s ears perk, and in what even Caleb can detect is a Herculean move against an oncoming wave of sadness, straightens up a little in his seat. “But you can sing in  _anything_ ,” he points out confidently.

Caleb struggles to join in. “Toya, you can sing?”

“Uh-huh,” Toya says shyly. “My last school had a choir, but this one only has music classes. But, um, Gustav lets me practice at home.”

“ _Lets_  her, pfft,” Molly says, gesturing dismissively. “Gustav  _loves_  hearing you sing. We  _all_  do.”

“We do,” Yasha agrees. Toya looks down at her lap and smiles.

“I’d love to hear you sing,” Beau adds.

“Yeah!” Nott smiles. “If you feel like it, I mean. No pressure.”

“Your circle of admirers grows,” Molly tells her, leaning over and giving her a friendly bonk on the head with his horn. She swats at it and giggles.

“Almost there,” Yasha says. “Molly, lean back and sit in your seat properly.”

“M-word,” Molly singsongs, but leans back obediently, sticking his tongue out at a smiling Toya.


	5. Chapter 5

Caleb starts paying attention to his surroundings right as they pull up a gravel driveway. This area does not look as nice as the houses that surround the school for a three block radius, but they are well-kept, and this big house with gray shutters has a freshly mown lawn and a couple surprisingly nice rose bushes in the front.

“Those are fuckin’ beautiful,” Beau says, spotting them. “Um. Sorry, Toya.”

Yasha throws the car into park and hops out, pulling her seat forward so people can crawl out on her side as Toya continues to fiddle with her seatbelt and backpack. “Gustav got them for me,” she says, looking a little awkward. “They’re, um. A project.”

“Cool,” Nott says, and hops out with her satchel. Beau’s silent as she climbs out, adjusting her backpack strap and looking at her shoes.

“Sorry,” Toya says, as Caleb waits for her to get out first. “I’m not very strong.”

“It’s okay,” Caleb and Molly say in accidental unison. Molly grins and gives Caleb a friendly elbow.

“Okay. That’s my bookbag, and my jacket, and my phone.” She sounds like she’s reciting a list as she counts her things, finally nodding and grabbing the front seat with tiny hands to pull it forward. “Come on out!”

Caleb crawls out, and then Molly, who grabs his pack out of the footwell of the front seat and shuts the door with his tail. Toya scowls.

“Even your  _tail_  is stronger than me,” she sighs.

“My tail is attached to my butt, and my butt is very powerful.” Molly gives her a serious look as they walk up the path to the front door, which they open without even checking to see if it’s locked. “We’re back!” Molly calls into the house, and moves to a magnetic white board by the door, where he moves three little magnets from the left side to the right.

Caleb looks around at the organized chaos of the foyer, where there are multiple cubbies, some of which already have book bags and sneakers. There is a large tv in the corner with several game systems, and two stairwells going up and down. From the basement, a bald half-elven man walks up.

“Guests?” he asks gruffly.

Yasha gestures to them. “Beau, Nott. Caleb. All from our school.”

The man glances at Beau’s sleeveless shirt, then at Nott and Caleb. “Let’s see your biceps,” he says.

Molly makes a pained sound as Caleb shares a confused look with Nott, who shakes her head that she doesn’t know either. “Gustav,” Molly says. “They’re fine.”

“The cops already came around asking if any of you had those stupid tattoos. I want to make sure none of those morons come in here and get you kids in trouble.”

“I do not have any tattoos,” Caleb mumbles, and takes a breath, pulling his hoodie up over his head and pulling his t-shirt up to show both his arms in turn. The man nods, then looks to Nott.

“The Marrow Valley gang are all  _humans_ , Gustav,” Molly says tiredly. “They’re also idiots.”

“Sorry, young lady,” Gustav says to Nott, then turns to Molly and frowns. “How do  _you_  know that?”

“Because they hang out in the bar I busk outside of and try to hit on girls, and it’s  _sad_.” Molly crosses his arms and flicks his tail. “They wear their color-coordinated face scarves around their necks and they look like closet cosplays of Fred Jones.”

“I don’t understand the second half of that, but I’ll take your word.” Gustav gives a long-suffering sigh, and in that moment, it’s easy to see a big heart and a lot of hard work. “Beau, Nott, Caleb, welcome. Make yourselves at home. Sorry about my manners.”

“It is okay,” Caleb says, and starts pulling his hoodie back on. “Thank you for having us at your home.”

“Yeah, like, fair questions.” Beau shrugs. “We could all be spies, right? Who knows anything about anybody?”

Caleb shoots her the secret look that means  _YOU ARE BEING WEIRD RIGHT NOW._

“Nott, do you want any soda?” Toya is smiling at Nott, who perks immediately.

“ _Five soda maximum_ ,” Caleb recites instantly, and flushes when the room turns to blink at him. “She drinks too much caffeine, it is bad for her.”

Toya blushes. “We’ve got juice?”

“Juice is fine,” Nott says, and follows Toya toward the kitchen. Caleb and Beau watch them go, now a little at sea.

“You should see Yasha’s other plants,” Molly says, jerking a thumb at her. “The roses are just the front yard.”

Yasha looks down. “It’s hot back there, nobody wants to walk around outside…”

“We would love to see the plants,” Caleb says, and walks close enough to Yasha that he can step on Beau’s foot and bring her back into the conversation.

“Ow! Um. Are they. In the back yard?”

“Mostly,” Yasha says, looking down a hallway. “I mean, if you want to.”

“Yeah,” Beau says. “Please.”

They follow her down the hall to a sliding glass door, which opens up to an extremely modest poured concrete patio and fenced-in grass yard.

“It looks like, how do you say? Magazine front page?”

“Magazine cover,” Beau mumbles, walking through the open glass door and staring at all the bushes and flowers in bloom. Molly does a joking sort of presentation gesture, making Yasha roll her eyes and cross her arms. “Yasha, do you seriously do all of this yourself?”

“Toya helps me water,” Yasha says, looking past Caleb’s shoulder. They turn to see Toya and Nott following them out, Nott with two glasses and Toya with one. Toya hands a glass of water to Beau, and Nott hands one to Caleb.

“Vielen dank.”

Nott shrugs. “You two always want the same thing,” she says, then looks around. “Yasha, you do all this?”

“Yes,” Yasha says again, and walks over to a blooming vine with wild purple blooms to fiddle with its arrangement on the fence and pluck at a few dead heads. “It’s just. Something nice to do for the house.”

“You all should help me pick up flowers on the ground,” Toya announces, and starts wandering over to a blooming azalea bush to pick up the bright magenta flowers that have fallen. “Then I can put them in Molly’s hair.”

Nott laughs. “He’ll let you?”

“He looks  _pretty_  with flowers in his hair,” Toya informs her, pulling her t-shirt out a little from her stomach and using it as a makeshift basket.

“So without the flowers I’m  _not_ pretty, Toya?” Molly grins at her.

“Prettier,” Toya amends, and giggles. “But we can do it inside, it’s hot out here.”

Molly looks to the others. “You’re all invited to have a session with my hairdresser. She’s  _very_  good.”

“I think my hair’s too short,” Beau mumbles, just as Nott grabs Caleb’s hand and says, “Sure!”

Yasha smiles gently. “Professional singer. Professional hairdresser.”

“I can’t be  _both_ ,” Toya argues, giggling.

“Professional animal handler,” Molly adds, pretending not to hear her.

“Triple threat,” Caleb says, excited to use one of his new phrases. Nott grins proudly.

“I don’t think this is enough,” Toya says to herself, looking down at her t-shirt basket. “I’ll just come back out if I need more.”

“As long as I get my hair done first,” Molly says. “I have seniority.”

**

Molly sits on the floor in front of the couch and gets flowers woven into his hair, smiling with infinite patience and using a hand mirror Yasha grabs from the bathroom to admire himself and compliment her work. When it’s Caleb’s turn, Molly doesn’t move, so Caleb sits on the floor of the other end of the couch, and Toya is combing his hair when the front door opens and Bosun comes in, sweating.

“ _Late_ ,” Gustav calls from downstairs.

“Sorry,” Bosun pants back, dropping his bag in a cubby and moving his magnet over. “Someone’s car died at the intersection and none of those idiots actually knew how to jump a car.”

Caleb tries to imagine what would happen back home if someone’s car died and a huge half-orc came over to offer help. It… doesn’t come together in his mind.

“Text next time,” Gustav calls. “And don’t forget, you’re vacuuming tonight.”

“I know,” Bosun says, and he’s grinning and shaking his head as he gives an informal wave to the group in the living room. They wave back, and he trudges upstairs.

“Bosun keeps the Kart running,” Yasha says, watching Toya work. All Caleb can feel is little hands holding different sections of his hair, extremely gentle as they weave them together and poke little things in here and there. Molly’s head already looks like a garden with two horns sticking out, so Caleb is strangely fine with what’s happening.

“He seems like the type who’d be into cars,” Nott says.

“Yeah, he’s sad about hybrids.” Molly grins. “I mean, he’s glad they’re better for the environment, but he pops the hood and  _nothing_  makes sense to him, apparently.”

“What are  _you_  into, Molly?” Nott prompts, and Caleb feels his cheeks tinge red again as Molly bites his lip.

“Um, singing, and performing, and yoga, I guess? Math class is alright. I’m really shitty at Sylvan.” He smiles apologetically at Caleb.

“Caleb can recite Sylvan folk tales,” Nott says. “He just takes the advanced class for an easy A.”

Caleb rubs at his face. “You are making me sound…” He struggles for the right word.

“That’s cool, though,” Yasha interrupts. “Folk tales? The really old stuff?”

“Sylvan is pretty,” Toya says behind him. “Tell us a story.”

Caleb’s throat is suddenly very dry. “Okay,” he says, and wrings his hands in his lap a little. “Um.” He takes a breath, and recites the stanzas about the Pantheon of Seldarine, and how Lolth and her followers broke away and tempted many away from Corellon’s guidance. Corellon was angry that any of the children of his blood would stray from him, and he cast them all out onto Earth. Caleb gets to the part where the elves are described as only having one form after angering Corellon and looks up from his recital.

“Fuck,” Molly breathes.

“That’s not nice,” Toya says quietly. “It was very pretty.”

“I meant it in a good way,” Molly says, face looking… hard for Caleb to read… as he shifts on the carpet and glances to Yasha. “Wasn’t that amazing?”

“You sound like an expert on tv,” Yasha agrees. “I don’t know what you said but it was really good.”

“Yeah, you could’ve been reciting a Chinese menu, we’d have no idea.” Beau barks out in laughter. “It just sounds super ancient and cool.”

“What  _were_  you saying?” Nott asks quietly.

“Um, it is just, their mythical origin story,” Caleb mumbles. He can feel that Toya’s hands have resumed sectioning parts of his hair, now near his ears. “They have a figure sort of like Satan… what was Satan’s name first? When he was an angel? We call him Luzifer.”

“We call him the same thing, minus the bitchin’ accent.”

Caleb laughs at Beau’s bluntness. “Um, she is sort of like Luzifer, in the Garden of Eden. She says to the elves, ‘come away from Corellon, he wants us to be like him, but we could explore Earth and see what else life could be like’.”

“Wow,” Molly says. “So… they did?”

Caleb waves his hand in a circle. “Sort of? Corellon gets mad and they, they debate, but Lolth tries to attack him, and… it gets complicated. Correllon pushed most elves onto Earth and made them stay there and did not let them change their shape anymore. And he made them mortal.”

“Cursed to just walk the Earth and be super hot and live to be like three hundred,” Beau says flatly. “Horrible curse.”

Molly laughs. “Yeah, as a tiefling, I’m really shedding a tear over here.”

“Europe still thinks horrible things about tieflings,” Caleb blurts, unable to hold himself back. “And about half orcs. It is really bad.”

“But you don’t,” Nott clarifies quickly, although nobody in the room seems concerned. “You’re not like that.”

“And there are idiots in America, too,” Beau adds. “Tieflings are gonna come around and steal all our women, blah blah blah,”

“Not just your women,” Molly says, pushing one shoulder forward suggestively as he waggles his eyebrows at Beau. Yasha barks out a laugh, and Toya giggles behind Caleb’s head. “Any! All! Let me at ‘em!”

“Being small isn’t so bad, I guess,” Toya says softly. “It’s just annoying.”

Yasha’s eyes narrow. “And if anyone starts giving you trouble, you’ll what?”

“Text you and Molls and Gustav,” Toya recites reluctantly.

“Good plan,” Caleb affirms. “You are a good kid.”

“Thank you,” Toya says. “You’re all done, scooch over.” She nudges him over by the shoulder, and Caleb goes as directed, finding that now he’s brushing arms with Molly.

“You look great,” Molly says, and pulls out his phone. Caleb watches as Molly flips the screen to admire his own flower arrangement before leaning into Caleb’s space, and Caleb panics before realizing it’s for a selfie with him. “Do you - I don’t have to take a photo of us if you don’t want,” Molly says, pulling back a little, and Caleb realizes on the screen that his face is exactly as nervous as it looks.

“No,” he says, gathering his courage. “No, I want to have a picture of my great flowers.”

Behind him, he can hear Toya giggling as she starts to plait Nott’s hair.

Molly beams at him. “Cheese,” he singsongs, and Caleb leans back in to the shot and smiles. The screen ‘clicks’ a few times and Molly leans back against the couch, flipping through the shots and picking the best one.

Beau squirms in her armchair. “Toya, after this can we see your animals?”

“Uh-huh,” Toya agrees. “I don’t know if the kitten’ll come out, though, there’s a lot of us.”

“I’ve seen him before, I’ll stay in the hall.” Yasha shrugs.

“Me too, even if I love that little fucker.” Molly sighs. “Why won’t he love me  _back?”_

“What, um, what kind of kitten?” Caleb tries not to sound too excited.

“He’s orange. And skinny.” Toya bites her lip as she starts making a little arc of azalea blooms behind both of Nott’s ears, trying to make them symmetrical. “I think she’s about ten weeks now, but I still don’t think he’s ready to get neutered yet, because, um. He’s still recovering.”

“What happened to him?” Beau asks.

“He was a stray, and I think he was alone for a long time… and maybe some people were mean to him. At first I thought he was afraid of men, but he’s afraid of a lot of women too.” Toya rubs her nose. “My… my last dog was really afraid of men. He’d protect me from them, before he, um.”

“That wasn’t your fault, sweetness.” Molly’s voice is gentle.

Toya rubs her nose again, and Caleb notices that her mouth is trembling a little. In a gamble, he looks over his shoulder, sending Molly what he hopes is a clear  _ALERT!_  face.

“Nott’s flowers look really good,” Molly says suddenly, turning to Yasha. Yasha frowns and then looks, and seems to notice the impending catastrophe too.

“Yeah,” Yasha agrees. “Great work Toya.”

“Caleb, you sounded really interested in the kitten?” Molly nudges him.

“Ja, I am, I really, I really like cats.” He gets to his feet as Toya lets go of Nott’s hair. “My locker has a bunch of pictures of them.” Shit. Shouldn’t have said that.

“What kinds do you like?” Toya asks, sliding off the couch and looking up at him hesitantly. He puts on a big smile.

“I don’t really care about breeds, I guess, I just like them.”

She smiles back. “I’m the same way,” she enthuses. “Come on, he’s in the garage.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Hi, jsyk I know very little about rehabbing animals, so a lot of this is guesswork and might not be the right way to do things. I have already done an embarrassing amount of research on this story to make sure the public school was believable, so forgive my laziness in this aspect)

The garage is being used for storage, which isn’t uncommon, but it also has a maze of cages, some on tables and some on the ground, most of them empty. Something is chittering and Toya is trotting toward it, kneeling down by the cage and stroking its nose.

“Hi, Beebles,” she singsongs. It turns out to be a squirrel, who has a nasty cut up its side that has mostly healed. “You ate your food today! Good boy!”

“ _Beebles_ ,” Beau mutters under her breath disbelievingly. Toya waves them in further. “You said fewer people is better, right? I’m gonna give Nott and Caleb a better chance of seeing mystery kitty and wait in the hall with, um, with the others.” She jerks a thumb behind her.

“Okay,” Toya says, and Beau disappears down the hall. “Nott, come see Beebles. He’s got the cutest nose.”

Nott shuffles over, kneeling down and blinking. “That’s a super cute nose,” she admits.

Caleb is looking around the rest of the garage, looking for signs of other life. “What else is there?” he asks politely.

“The incubator’s in the corner but that’s gonna be a few more days. And, um, the pigeon’s asleep, is it okay if I leave its blanket on its cage?”

“Of course,” Nott says. “We don’t want to upset any of the animals.”

“No, we don’t,” Caleb lies, and desperately wants to see the kitten. He moves to the corner of the room near the incubator, sitting down and putting his hands in his lap. Toya is showing Nott how Beebles will play and ‘chase’ her finger around, ‘catching’ it with his hands but not biting. Nott tries it too.

“Hier, Schatzi.” Caleb murmurs under his breath, looking up at the suspended beams, then behind the large shop vac box in the corner. “Hiiier, Kleines.”

Nothing. Caleb sighs, wishing he had a phone to pull out and fiddle with like everyone else. The squirrel seems cute, but he wants Toya to have one on one time with Nott, because that’s what they  _came_ here for, and it really seems to make the little girl happy.

Making her happy makes  _Molly_  really happy, he’s also learned, and that’s an unexpected huge bonus to this whole thing. Caleb has so far gotten through every single interaction without instigating any  _catastrophic_  failures, and it’s possible that, after this, they will go their separate ways, and then nod at each other in the hallway. Or even wave.

Or smile.

Caleb sighs hopefully, jumping a little when something bumps his hip.

“Rrrm,” the something says.

Caleb holds very still and looks down at the tiniest, scrawniest thing he has ever seen in his entire life. It’s orange and tabby and looks lanky and underfed, coat surprisingly clean but still very bony at the shoulders and ribs.

“Hallo,” he says, barely above a whisper, and the kitten sits next to him and looks at Toya for a moment, finally looking back to him (!) and headbutting his hip again. “Hallo Schnuckiputz. Hallo. Du bist so  _nett_.”

The other side of the room has gotten very quiet, but Caleb doesn’t notice, using all his self-control to lift his hand from his lap as slowly as possible, watching the kitten watch it with increasing concern before finally deciding it might be alright.

“Wer ist süß?  _Du_  bist süß!” He giggles delightedly when he feels the featherweight pressure of one of his paws coming up to bat at his hand. “Hallo! Hallo Liebling!”

Caleb remembers there are other people in the room when he sees Toya move in his eye line. He blinks, momentarily embarrassed, but is distracted when the kitten climbs awkwardly into his lap, standing on shaky hind legs to put its front paws on Caleb’s hoodie.

“Rrri,” it insists quietly, and Caleb coos and kisses its nose.

“Ich weiß, ich weiß,” he insists. “Wie heißt du? Hm?”

“Here,” Toya whispers, and reaches out with a small tin can and a spoon.

“Oh - da - thank-” Caleb laughs as the kitten recognizes the can, squeaking another demand and digging its claws into his hoodie. “Ja, ja, es ist für dich! Okay!” He pops the tab, looking around for his dish. “Wo ist - where is his, um-”

“Just feed her some off the spoon,” Toya whispers. She sounds really excited. Caleb does as instructed, digging out a small portion high out of reach of the insistent cat and then lowering the spoon down for her to lick at. He makes a mess of it, getting several wet pieces on Caleb’s lap, but as soon as he’s made sure there’s none left on the spoon, he stumbles down into a crouch and starts licking the remnants off his jeans.

“ _I’m taking a movie_ ,” Nott whispers.

“Mrrn,” the cat says, and takes a solid minute with the next small spoonful of food. He slows down toward the end and just licks his mouth. When Caleb hands the spoon and can back to Toya, the cat looks at him, assessing, before sitting in his lap and licking his front paw several times, then looking around again, and then laying down on his side.

“Pet him,” Toya says quietly.

“I am afraid,” Caleb admits.

“ _Pet that kitty,”_ Toyainsists.

Caleb takes a breath and reminds himself to be brave. He raises his hand slowly, where the kitten can see it, and gently touches the top of its head. It wiggles a moment and then stretches out further, paws relaxed on his thigh. Caleb pets it with a little more pressure, down to its neck, down its spine, finally stroking from toe to tail in light, slow motions.

“Rub his ears,” Toya says, miming a rubbing motion like she’s doing the sign for ‘money’. Caleb nods bites his lip, sweeping his fingertips over its head, then gently rubbing the folds of its left ear back and forth as lightly as possible.

The kitten starts purring very, very quietly.

“I am in love with this cat,” Caleb admits softly, scratching its head and then moving on to the other ear. “I want to live in this garage. I will pet this cat for the rest of my life.”

Toya giggles and moves closer, finally sitting next to him. The kitten squints up at her and blinks a few times, then lays its head back down. “What’s his name?”

Caleb doesn’t even think to ask why  _she’s_  asking  _him._  “I don’t know,” he murmurs. “Frumpkin?”

Toya giggles.

“Is that a German word?” Nott asks quietly.

“No, it’s just a silly name… kind of sounds like pumpkin…”

“Frumpkin,” Toya says, “Okay.”

“Really?” His head snaps up. “I can name him?”

Toya grins at him, and it’s clear she knows what an incredible gift she’s just given. “His name is Frumpkin,” she says.

“Hallo Frumpkin,” Caleb whispers, using his free hand to cradle the kitten as he wiggles a little too close to the edge of his lap. “Hallo. Hallo.”

“I can pick him up and carry him,” Toya says, “Try picking him up and holding him.”

“What if he doesn’t like it?” Their new friendship is so tenuous - is it worth such a risk?

“He needs to be comfortable around new people. Come on, we’re gonna pick him up and move him to Molly’s room.”

Scheisse. “Okay,” he says, and starts to slowly gather up the sleepy cat. It ragdolls for a moment, reluctant, then curls up into a fuzzy croissant and lets himself be held. “I’ve got him.” He gets up very slowly, and the cat lets out a token protest squeak before deciding that it’s still comfortable.

“Come on,” Toya says softly, eyes on the cat and backing up. “Nott, get the door.”

“I’m making a second movie,” Nott says quietly, scooting through the cage maze and holding the door open for them to walk through. Toya leads Caleb down the hall, gesturing to an open door for Caleb to go into. Caleb swallows his fear and carries Frumpkin in, desperately relieved to find the room empty.

“Sit,” Toya says, pointing to a beat up armchair in the corner. Caleb does so slowly, sinking down further than he expected. “He’s so  _cute_.”

“He is the best cat in the entire world,” Caleb whispers back.

“I’m gonna get Molly,” Toya says.

“What?” Caleb says, but it’s too late.


	7. Chapter 7

Toya is gone, and Caleb is trapped in a sinking chair with the perfect cat.

Caleb blinks down at Frumpkin for a moment - Frumpkin does not seem to care about Caleb’s plight - before looking around the room, at the bunkbed whose top bunk has been converted into some sort of storage surface for … costumes? … and a mess of band posters that line the wall. In a moment of curiosity, he starts to look around for the poster of a guy that Nott mentioned, but then there are footsteps.

“Oh my god,” Molly squeals, and Frumpkin and Caleb both tense at the time.

“No,” Caleb whispers firmly, before he can stop himself. Molly’s pointed ears flatten a little behind their garden of flowers, and Caleb flushes. “You must be quiet,” he says, making an apologetic face. “He is a, um, a scaredy cat.” Is that just a phrase used for people? Caleb can’t remember.

“Okay,” Molly whispers, and creeps in and shuts the door with a click. “I’m sorry. I’ve only seen him, like, like a cryptid. How’d Toya get him in your lap?”

“He came up and just… I don’t know,” Caleb admits.

“Toya said his name is Frumpkin now?”

Caleb’s stomach falls. “It is a dumb name.”

“It’s  _not_ ,” Molly insists, kneeling down and looking at the suspicious kitten face. “It’s a great name. Hi, Frumpkin.”

There are a few moments where they just stay like that, Caleb holding the cat bundle in his arms and Molly smiling at it. Finally, Caleb’s arms get tired.

“I am going to set him down on my lap.”

“Okay. Okay. Okay, we can do this.”

“Here we go.”

“Meeer,” Frumpkin protests, and digs his tiny kitten claws into Caleb’s hoodie a bit.

“No, no, just to my lap, I am not putting you all the way down.” He sets him down, and pets him a few times, and he fusses for a few minutes before sniffing Molly’s offered hand and stumbling a little further to sniff it again.

“Hi Frumpkin,” Molly whispers quietly. “Have I been freaking you out? I”m sorry. I’m used to alley cats. They’re not scared of shit.”

Frumpkin seems to decide that Molly’s no particular threat, and starts investigating the large, stretched-wide hoodie pocket that’s clearly some sort of adventure waiting to happen. He gets his claw caught on it a few times before Caleb lifts the fabric to make a clear tunnel.

“Do it,” Molly enthuses under his breath. “Go the distance little guy.”

Frumpkin waddles into the hoodie pocket, and  _almost_  out the other side, before deciding either that he has adventured enough or that this is where he was meant to be.

“Oh my god,” Caleb murmurs, looking at the tiny pink nose and half a face sticking out the side. “Oh my god oh my god.”

“Let go of the pocket,” Molly tells him. “He lives there now.”

Caleb very carefully releases the top of the pocket, letting the cotton fabric settle on the cat. “He does not even fill the pocket.”

“Room to grow,” Molly says, laughing softly. “Seriously, this is so cool. You’re so good with him!”

“I’m not, I just met him, I feel like I am going to make him pee and also claw my face and hide under, um, under the chair…” Caleb trails off as Molly muffles more laughter. “What?”

“You speak German and Sylvan and you’re good with cats,” Molly says. “You’re just. The best.”

Caleb can stand to look at Molly’s warm, happy expression for about a fraction of a second before he feels his stomach cramp up in anxious guilt, and he looks back down at Frumpkin, who has stuck his tiny paws out to knead at the air. “Oh. Oh wow.”

They watch Frumpkin for two solid minutes in silence.

“Where is everyone?” Caleb wonders aloud.

“Beau asked to see more garden stuff.” Molly sticks one finger out, making a tiny squeaking sound when Frumpkin captures it in his tiny paws and releases his claws to ‘capture’ it. “That kinda hurts,” Molly wheezes.

“Frumpkin, nein.” Caleb strokes the backs of the kitten’s paws until he pulls them back. “Du tust ihm weh.”

“Yeah, whatever he said,” Molly agrees, taking his finger back and frowning at his lavender hand. “But, tell him I still love him.”

“Er liebt dich immer noch,” Caleb tells Frumpkin dutifully.

“That sounds so cool.”

Caleb digs his thumbnail into the hem of his hoodie. “Everyone says it sounds harsh,” he mumbles.

“No,” Molly insists. “Like, in movies and stuff where they’re always yelling, sure. But it sounds pretty when you say it.”

“Oh.”

“Molly,” Gustav calls from the hallway. Molly jumps about a foot in the air and Caleb, somehow, manages to freeze instead of leap out of the chair. Still bothered by Molly’s sudden movement, Frumpkin burrows further into the hoodie pocket and disappears completely.

“In here,” Molly says, strangled, and opens the door a few inches. Gustav squints at him and pushes it open the rest of the way, looking Molly up and down and then Caleb.

“Everything okay in here?”

“Frumpkin,” Caleb explains quickly, pointing to his lap.

Two seconds pass.

“Frumpkin is the name of Toya’s kitten,” Molly says very quickly, “who is in his hoodie pocket. Frumpkin is the kitten in his pocket.”

Gustav looks from Molly, to Caleb, to Caleb’s pocket, to Molly again, to Caleb’s pocket, which starts wiggling. Panicking further, Caleb yanks back the pocket as far as it will open, revealing a kitten butt, a tail sticking up, and an indignant ‘ _meer’_  at the disturbance.

“Okay,” Gustav says, and looks at the two boys’ mortified faces one last time before putting his hand back on the doorknob. “Molly, have you gotten a text from the twins? I haven’t heard from them since lunch.”

Molly grimaces. “They’re at the mall with whatshername,” he says, clearly annoyed with them. “They said they were gonna text you.”

Gustav rolls his eyes. “Those girls. Thank you, Molly.”

“No problem. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for them, they’re just… you know how they are. And they’re my responsibility, not yours.”

“Yeah, but they should answer their  _phones_  if your texting - didn’t that new horror movie come out yesterday? They’re probably seeing it.” Molly scrubs his face. “Jeez.”

“We’ll find out by eleven,” Gustav says with a shrug. Caleb can translate that shrug very easily into  _and then I will be having a long talk with them._  Gustav walks out and shuts the door.

“Mona and Yuli,” Molly says to Caleb, visibly annoyed. “They’re the ones that are always smoking at the picnic tables.”

Caleb tries to take some deep breaths without being obvious about it. The idea of Gustav calling his parents and saying  _your son was alone in a room with my son and I think they were getting up to something_  is now a non-zero chance, and if that happens, even if it  _almost_  happened… he needs to stop this train of thought before his stomach gets worse. “Always smoking at the… picnic tables. Very short,” he says, thinking back.

Molly tilts his head. “Well, halflings.”

“Oh.” Caleb blushes scarlet. Molly sees it and barks out in a brief laugh, unable to stop himself. Caleb’s heart races and plunges further down. “I have only - I have only seen them from far away.”

“Sorry,” Molly apologizes, hiding his mouth as he tries to choke down his laughter. “Sometimes you just. Say things.”

Caleb cringes and looks down.

“No no no no, not like  _that_ ,” Molly says hurriedly. “I mean it’s cute. I mean, what’s the word, naive? I don’t know, it’s, shit, I’m sorry.”

“I think I am, um,” Caleb nudges Frumpkin out from his pocket, setting him down on the armchair and standing up. “I think I should go. Your d- your guardian is, is not liking me in your room, and,”

“No, he’s fine with it, he just-”

“And I keep, what is the word, in my mouth-” Caleb blushes further and makes for the door. “My foot, I mean, it goes in my mouth-” Feeling a panic attack coming on, he turns down the corridor to the living room.

_Thank god_ , Toya and Nott are right there on the couch, looking at something on Toya’s phone. Nott’s head snaps up as Caleb comes closer, and she seems to twig that something’s wrong.

“Caleb,” Molly says, but doesn’t finish his sentence - maybe he doesn’t want to embarrass Caleb in front of Nott or Toya, which is something.

“I have to get home,” he says to Nott, “I am late.”

“Okay,” Nott says, not asking a goddamnn single thing because she is the  _best_  friend he has  _ever_  had in his  _life_. When he goes to the pile of backpacks in the corner and pulls his out, she’s right there getting her satchel. “Beau lives around the corner, we can leave her here and she’ll walk home when she’s done in the garden.”

“They went back to the back yard,” Toya tells Molly, a little confused.

“Does Beau like… …flowers?” Molly asks cautiously.

“She’s fuckin’ huge on Georgia O’Keefe,” Nott says flatly, and Molly’s eyes go round.

“Okay, well, um, good to know.”

“Thank you for having us, sorry, we have a lot of homework.” Caleb shoulders his bag and gives a brief wave with no eye contact.

“Um, bye,” Molly says, and sounds really upset. Caleb swallows a really dark awful feeling of  _stupid_  and  _idiot,_ almost walking into the door before opening it all the way and making his escape. Nott is right on his heels, silent except for the slap of her sneakers on the pavement.

She waits until they’re exactly a block away. “What happened?” she whispers.

“I am a fuckup,” Caleb says, breath hitching.

“No,” Nott says automatically. “What happened?”

“Toya - she put me in Molly’s room with F- with ze cat and then Molly came in and we played wis ze cat and -” Caleb shuts his eyes and digs the heels of his palms into them. “Gustav came in and I think he thought we were, but - but we weren’t - and - and I just acted like such an idiot and I am so scared of upsetting my mom and my dad and ich  _hasse_  mich, ich hasse mich,”

“Caleb, don’t.”

“I am always saying the wrong thing! I called his halfling sisters  _short_!”

“That’s not  _mean_ ,” Nott counters hesitantly. “I bet you just,”

“No! I am always making mistakes! I do a stupid selfish thing and then I try to fix it and then it is worse and then I hurt everyone!” Caleb uses the sleeve of his hoodie to wipe at his face, walking faster. “I am awful!”

“No,” Nott says again, and they turn the corner to the main street intersection. “Where is this coming from? You’re not awful. Molly looked like he felt bad, did he say something to you? Did  _he_  do this to you!?”

“ _No!_  I did this! I always do this! I think I am so smart but I am an idiot!”

“Caleb?”

Caleb and Nott stop dead. Jester is there on the sidewalk, holding several shopping bags and standing next to a sleek looking car with a professional driver in the front seat. She’s staring at Caleb’s face.

“Caleb? What happened?”

“ _Your_  fault,” Caleb shouts, and whips around and turns the other way before either girl can say anything.


	8. Chapter 8

“Okay, I’ve-” Nott hesitates, thumbs flying over her touch screen. “Beau knows we left, and I just told Jester you didn’t mean it.”

Caleb makes a pained sound. “Just leave me here, Nott.”

“I am not leaving you in an alley between a Starbucks and a candle store. That’s not what friends do.”

Caleb groans again and pulls his hoodie up over his head, sitting on a stack of pallets and hunching over. “I think I am going to be sick.”

“Sick like fever? Sick like throw up?”

“Throw up,” Caleb admits.

“Hey.” Nott pockets her phone and climbs up, rubbing his back in little circles. “No no no. You don’t have to do that. Sit up. Breathe. It’s okay.”

Caleb sniffles.

“Nobody’s mad at you,” Nott tells him. “Beau gets more time with Yasha. And she knows how you are.”

“How I  _am_ ,” Caleb echoes, wounded.

“We’re all idiots,” Nott reassures him. “We’re just different kinds of idiots. Remember when Yasha came over and Beau couldn’t even talk?”

“I should be like that.” Caleb hiccups. “I cannot… believe I yelled at Jester.”

“She’s not mad.”

“She’s so  _nice_.”

“She’s  _not mad_ ,” Nott repeats. “She’s just really worried about you. I told her I’d explain later. Beau isn’t mad either. Nobody’s mad.”

Caleb shakes his head, tipping a little bit toward Nott. She takes the hint and gives him a hug. “I am feeling… very bad right now.”

“I’m gonna get you something to eat,” Nott tells him. “And something to drink. I think sometimes you get a little off when you’ve gone too long without anything in your stomach.”

“I am not hungry. Please do not-”

“I saw you take off your hoodie, okay?” Nott looks him in the eye, serious and worried. “Let me get you something to eat. Please.”

Caleb nods, tilting his head down and crying a little more as soon as she leaves.

**

Four minutes later, Nott comes back, shoving a panini and cup of water into his hands. “All of it,” she says, mustering some bossiness. “You need to eat all of it.”

“Okay,” he says, because the least he can do at this point is follow instructions. He unwraps the panini, inspecting it. “…am I allowed. To take off tomatoes.”

“…yes,” Nott says.

Caleb pulls the bread up, picking out the thin slices of tomato and just letting them drop on the alley floor. Nott pulls some kind of fancy chocolate bar out of her pocket and begins to unwrap it. “Also. You still have flowers on your head.”

“Fuck it. They look cute. I don’t care if people stare at me more.” She squints at her phone. “Jester texted me while I was in line. She says she shouldn’t have bullied you into going to Toya and Molly and Yasha’s house.”

Caleb makes an ambiguous noise as he chews.

“Well, she apologizes. And Beau says she got invited to stay for dinner and panicked and ran home but she’s pretty sure she’s got an open invitation to come back and learn how garden. So. Good for her.”

“Goob fo’ hr,” Caleb agrees tiredly around a mouthful.

“Are you feeling a little better?”

“Mm,” Caleb agrees, wiping his mouth. He takes a sip of water.

“I don’t think Gustav will tell your mom and dad. Even if he could get their number, I had Jester text Yuli, and Yuli promised that Gustav only gets upset about real shit. And that he wouldn’t rat on a closeted kid no matter what.” Nott holds out her chocolate bar, and while Caleb really doesn’t want any, he takes it, has a small bite, and hands it back. “I promise everything’s okay.”

Caleb nods. “Maybe everything that is wrong is just.. inside of me.”

Nott’s phone vibrates. “Jeez. Sorry.” She pulls it out.

“No, go ahead. I feel like…” He laughs hollowly. “What are they called in Hollywood? PR people?”

Nott giggles. “I’m your PR woman,” she agrees, and texts some more. “Jester says she’ll call us a cab if you don’t want to walk home. How long did they give you to stay out?”

“Til eight.” He checks his watch. “I have plenty of time.” Nott’s phone buzzes again several times, and her eyes fly open. “What? What is it?”

“Okay, this is…” Nott takes a breath. “Do you know the ‘I don’t have a phone’ meme?”

They play this game a lot. “I do not,” Caleb admits.

“It’s like, um, imagine if you asked me for my phone number right now, right here, and I was texting right in front of you,” Nott mimes typing very quickly. “And I said ‘sorry, I don’t have a phone.’“

“So, it means, you are lying,” Caleb hazards.

“It means I’m lying, yeah, and I’m dismissing you, like, I don’t want to talk to you, and I don’t care if you can tell I’m lying to you to not talk to you.”

“Okay, it is, it is like ‘fuck off’ kind of.”

“Yeah.” Nott swallows and scrolls up, trying to find the top of Jester’s many texts. “So Molly got some phone numbers through Yuli to try to find  _your_  number and nobody had it but Yuli got Jester’s number from Bosun since they’re-”

“Too much,” Caleb interrupts apologetically.

Nott nods and takes a moment to cut it down. “Molly got Jester’s number, and asked Jester for your number.”

“Yes, okay.”

“And Jester said you don’t have a phone.”

“Right.”

Nott stares at him meaningfully.

Caleb backtracks. “Jester said - Molly  _thinks_  Jester said for him, to fuck off?”

Nott nods. “Because nobody  _actually_  doesn’t have a phone! Like, almost nobody. And you were - no offense, you were really upset when you left the house, Molly definitely knew that, and he’s trying to reach you to apologize for whatever it was, and he thinks your friends all already know what happened and are making a wall.”

“A wall?”

“Like, ‘fuck you, we’re not giving you his number, we don’t want you talking to him’.”

Caleb feels his voice crack. “But that is not!” He gestures. “I mean, Jester did not mean that!”

“No, but he’s apparently apologized to her and she’s leaving him on read and asking me what you want to do.”

“Why?”

“In case you want to talk to him or not.”

“She is letting Molly think that… that you are all a wall now! Why!”

“Because we will  _be a wall for you_ ,” Nott says, shouting a little. “Whatever he said to you-”

“He just,  he said I was naive!”

“But you felt  _really bad_ and you’ve been so freaked out and so if you don’t want to talk to him, we won’t let him.” Nott waves her phone around, signifying Jester and the rest. “Jester’s on the group chat and she’s already told everyone to leave him on read and let her handle it, and she’s gonna do whatever I say, and you decide.”

Caleb stares at the brick wall.

“Germany really didn’t have this much texting drama?”

“It did, but it was all in German,” Caleb says mournfully. “And also I only. Had two friends.”

“Oh.”

“And we did not ever fight.”

“Oh.”

Caleb hiccups. “Molly was not mean. Just. I did stupid things, in front of him, and so I felt ashamed and wanted to get away.”

Nott’s ears flatten. “You still really like him.”

Caleb nods, miserable. “He is very sweet.” He fumbles with his hoodie, holding the pocket up and using his other hand to mime a kitten hiding in it. “We watched Frumpkin and played with him. He likes my accent, he does not think it is… harsh.”

“What are you scared of?”

He pulls his hands into his sleeves and presses them against his face.

“C’mon.”

“Zat,” Caleb sniffs. “That he will get to know me, better, and then not want to be my friend or  _anysing._ ”

Nott leans against his shoulder, and he leans back a little, careful not to knock her over. Her phone vibrates a few more times, and she sighs, clicking back a couple keys.

“Everyone says they hope you’re doing okay.”

Caleb nods, and looks down to the screen. “Um, can I?”

“Huh? Oh!” Nott hands her phone over, the little button charm brushing against Caleb’s fingers. “Go nuts.”

“Thank you.” He takes a moment to look at the very familiar screen GUI, but  _not_  in his familiar German, and composes a new text to “Jester (Peace Sign Blue Skin)”.

**[Me] Hi this is Caleb. I am borrowing Nott’s phone. I am very sorry for yelling. I was very rude.**

**[Jester] CALEB!!!! (frowny face) YOU LOOKED SO UPSET WHAT HAPPENED**

****[Jester]** NOTT HASN’T TOLD ME YET**

****[Jester]** ME AND FJORD ARE GONNA GO BEAT UP MOLLY Y/N???**

**[Me] No please. Molly is very nice. He feels bad because I got embarrassed and ran away. He did not do anything wrong**

**[Me] I am very sorry for yelling. You are very nice and I was mean**

**[Jester] DON’T APOLOGIZE IT IS FINE**

**[Jester] I’M LEAVING MOLLY ON READ TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO**

A picture is texted over, and Caleb squints. It’s a screenshot:

**Molly: Hi Jester this is Mollymauk Tealeaf from school. I’m trying to find Caleb Weiss’s number, do you have it?**

**Me: Sorry, Caleb doesn’t have a phone**

**Molly: That’s cold**

**Molly: I’m really sorry**

**Molly: Please tell him I’m sorry and I didn’t mean to upset him**

**Molly: He doesn’t have to say anything back or talk to me just please let him know I didn’t mean to upset him**

Caleb blinks several times and wipes at his eyes again. “Okay,” he says, and takes a breath and replies to Jester:

**[Me] Could you give him Nott’s number? That will be faster than me adding his in an English language phone**

**[Jester] SURE SWEETIE <3 <3 <3**

“Can I see?” Nott asks, after Caleb looks up from the screen. He holds it over, and she winces at the screenshot. “I know you’re not gonna believe me, but I think he really does like you.”

Caleb shrugs. “I think he thinks we could be friends… I could help with the… the song, in German and French…” He jumps as Nott’s phone vibrates.

**[Unknown Number] Hi is this Nott?**

**[Me] This is Nott’s phone, but this is Caleb. I am borrowing it.**

**[Unknown Number] I’m REALLY SORRY**

****[Unknown Number]**  I feel awful I’ve been trying to get your number to apologize**

**[Me] Sorry, I will not have a phone until next semester. I really do not have one.**

**[Unknown Number] That’s okay!!**

**[Unknown Number] I’m so sorry I upset you**

**[Me] I left your home very fast and I was being very silly. I am not good with**

Caleb holds the phone over to Nott. “What is the right word.”

“People?” she suggests.

Caleb winces.

“Social situations?”

“Thank you.”

**social situations.**

****[Unknown Number]** That’s totally okay! I was really rude, I shouldn’t have laughed**

****[Unknown Number]** I’m really used to a crazy mix of races from like every home and cps and everything**

**[Me] What is cps?**

A long pause. Caleb frowns and tilts the screen toward Nott, who reads and then bites her lip.

“From context? Child Protective Services. He’s, um, probably got some stories.”

Caleb frowns.

**[Me] Never mind it does not matter**

**[Me] I am sorry for making your afternoon very awkward**

**[Unknown Number] I’m sorry for roping you into a hundred things. You don’t have to help me with my song or my Sylvan hw**

Caleb begins to type back, but Molly’s still going.

**[Unknown Number] I was really excited to just do more stuff with you but I started looking back and I was just giving you chores to help me with and that was really shitty of me**

**[Me] No**

**[Unknown Number] You don’t have to do any of that. I should be offering to help YOU**

**[Unknown Number] You just moved here and you have to catch up on all this stuff and I was not even thinking about that because you just seemed like you were smart and you could do whatever**

**[Me] I am not so smart**

**[Unknown Number] YOU RECITED A SYLVAN ORIGIN THING FOR LIKE FIVE STRAIGHT MINUTES**

**[Unknown Number] So you are DEF smart but that’s beside the point because I still shouldn’t give you a bunch of stuff you have to help me with**

**[Me] I can not type this fast in English**

**[Unknown Number] I’m sorry**

Caleb looks at the screen. To his left, Nott has pulled her feet up on the pallets, finishing off her chocolate bar and leaning on his arm. He smiles at the top of her head.

**[Me] I liked meeting the cat with you**

**[Unknown Number] Frumpkin got mad at me when you left (sad cat face) He wouldn’t stop squeaking but he also wouldn’t come out from behind my chair**

**[Me] Toya gave me food for her. You should give her a spoon of food**

**[Unknown Number] (smiley face) I’ll ask Toya, she’s in temporary charge of all house pets**

**[Unknown Number] Can you have pets where you live?**

**[Me] No**

**[Unknown Number] Toya’s still talking about how much Frumpkin liked you**

**[Unknown Number] If you ever want to come over again to see him again he would probably be really happy**

Caleb blushes, trying to work out if he’s meant to read into it.

**[Me] I am sure lots of people like him, he is a kitten**

**[Unknown Number] But maybe he misses you already**

Caleb blushes  _further_. He tries to think of what to text back, no longer able to tilt the screen toward Nott.

**[Unknown Number] Sorry**

**[Unknown Number] Bosun told me what Nott yelled from the bleachers and I still don’t know if she meant it like you wanted to go out with me or if she meant like ‘even if you want to date the most parent-upsetting choice in the entire school’**

**[Unknown Number] And I wanted to ask you today but I chickened out**

Caleb tilts his head to Nott’s. “What should I do,” he mumbles.

“What’s going on?” she asks.

“Just. What should I do.”

“Be brave.”

**[Me] The first thing. Sorry**

**[Unknown Number] Why sorry??**

**[Me] I don’t know**

**[Unknown Number] You really do?**

**[Me] I can’t**

**[Unknown Number] You want to but you can’t?**

**[Me] I cannot date. I have to work hard and get good grades. I cannot do anything else**

**[Me] I made a mistake back home and now I have to be very good**

**[Unknown Number] Back home, in Germany?**

**[Me] Yes. Very big mistake**

**[Unknown Number] That BLOWS**

**[Unknown Number] But if you like me we don’t have to go out on dates after school. We can just spend time together**

Caleb sits up straighter, feeling his heart race a little

**[Me] That is okay with you? You would like to?**

**[Unknown Number] Yes. You came over today to see friends, can you do that again?**

**[Me] Probably not for a long time. They say after school friends can be twice a month if my grades are good**

**[Unknown Number] Well we’ll just hang out at school. And I’ll try not to be an asshole next time we hang out**

**[Me] You are not an asshole**

**[Unknown Number] I still kinda feel like one**

**[Me] Me too**

**[Unknown Number] But I’m also kinda excited because this cute boy likes me**

Caleb reads the line twice before  _shoving_  the screen in Nott’s face. “HE IS TALKING ABOUT ME!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DND race/emoji discourse in CR fics all started in [The Descriptivist's Approach](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14854460); credit where credit's due.


	9. Chapter 9

“You are sure it is okay?”

Fjord grins at him. “We  _like_  the Moondrop kids,” he says. “I’m more surprised than anything else. They mostly just hang out with each other… doesn’t mean we wouldn’t be happy to have ‘em hang out with us.”

“Ja. Um. Moondrop?”

“The street they live on,” Fjord says, and laughs. “Weren’t payin’ much attention when you were drivin’ over?”

Caleb feels his face heat a little, and Fjord gives him a friendly punch in the arm. “Well,” Caleb says, looking around the hallway a moment before leaning in. “You are one to talk, with-”

“Shut up,” Fjord says quickly, pulling the collar of his beholder t-shirt up until his face is half hidden. Muffled, “I never shoulda told you.”

“I will not tell,” Caleb reassures him.

“I know you won’t. Just.” Fjord’s cheeks are tinged dark green. “You know how she is.”

“Sweet?”

“ _Fancy_.” Fjord lets go of his shirt and huffs out a sigh. “She’s always swoonin’ over, you know, slick guys with hair gel, and skin routines, and…”

“Metrosexuals!” Caleb interjects excitedly, a little too loudly. A half-elf boy shoots him a weird look as they turn the corner.

Fjord chuckles.

“I just learned that one,” Caleb mutters, embarrassed. “I have not been able to use it yet.”

“Perfect usage. A plus.”

**

Jester leans in, tail swishing a bit in the grass at she stares at Molly’s face. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

Molly blinks. “…sure?”

“Do you use an eyebrow pencil?”

Molly grins shyly as Fjord and Beau roll their eyes. “A little?” he says.

“It looks  _so good_ ,” Jester enthuses, clapping excitedly. “I love when boys do their brows.  _I love it. You do yours so well!_  Do you do them? Does Yasha do them? Yasha doesn’t do them.”

Molly laughs and shakes his head. “I do them. The twins got me some fancy stuff for my birthday… I think the brand is like Beverly Hills?”

“Anastasia Beverly Hills,” Jester says immediately. “Good brand. Good pencils.” She beams and turns to Caleb. “He’s good,” she says approvingly, and leans back again to start in on her salad.

“Well,” Caleb says, clearing his throat, “now I will get to the  _second_ half of his introduction, I guess, which is: his last name is Tealeaf.”

“Jester kinda jumped in on ya, huh.” Fjord gives Jester a look.

“I noticed really really suddenly,” Jester says unapologetically. “He’s stylish!”

“I think I might get tattoos someday,” Molly says, dropping into a cross-legged position on the grass as Caleb takes his bag off his shoulder and adds it to the pile. “But I only want to get them if they’re the really amazing kind? Does that make sense?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Beau enthuses, lighting up. “Like those geometric ones, or the white ones? Do the white ones work on your skin?”

“They’d probably disappear on me faster than on light-skinned humans,” Molly grouses, frowning at the back of his forearm. “But I want something really colorful, anyway.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

Caleb starts opening his lunch bag, looking over. “Do you think, um, a little one, or a lot of little ones, or a big one…?”

“I kinda want a whole…” Molly grins bashfully and gestures his hand over his whole body.

“Like a Yakuza,” Fjord supplies. Molly’s red eyes light up.

“Yeah! Except I don’t want to get banned from hot springs.”

Fjord laughs. “I see tattoos all the time at the docks… trust me, the best advice I can give is to spend good money to get good art. I’ve seen enough pin-up girls going like…” He puts his shake down and sits up straighter, putting his hands behind his head and tucking his feet together, then distorting it at last minute by crossing his eyes and sticking a leg out at a weird angle. Jester snorts loudly and Nott tips over.

“Beautiful,” Jester gasps.

Molly leans in, super seriously: “Fjord, are you a  _model?”_

**

Nott asks Beau about the debate team, and that starts an epic and extremely entertaining rant that could go on indefinitely.

Caleb is setting his water bottle back down when he feels something nudge against his back - he frowns and turns, surprised to find it’s a lavender tail that’s very inconspicuously brushing against his ribs. He watches it a moment, the lazy little pattern it seems to be waving in, before peeking at Molly and discovering that Molly is just… listening to Beau, grinning, happy. He seems to notice Caleb looking at him, though, because the tail curls away rests on the grass.

“It is okay,” Caleb mumbles under his breath, when Fjord interrupts Beau to remind her that invitations to ‘take it outside’ will probably get her disqualified.

Molly doesn’t say anything, but his ear flicks out a moment and a few seconds later, Caleb feels a faint pressure on his back, like someone brushing their hand between his shoulder blades. He smiles down at his sneakers.

**

While waiting for History to start, Fjord snorts at his phone and leans over to Caleb’s desk, holding it out for him to see.

**Me: yeah i guess**

**Nott: no, he’s allowed two after school hangouts a month not including (robot emoji) classes**

**Beau (pink skin woman facepalm): jeez his parents are the WORST**

**Me: comin from you…**

**Jester (shortcake): MORE LUNCH DATES THEN**

**Jester (shortcake): AND HIS SIBS!!!! (devil emoji) (two girls emoji)**

**Beau (pink skin woman facepalm): stop it**

**Me: sounds like a plan**

**Beau (pink skin woman facepalm): fuck you f don’t join her**

Caleb giggles. “May I borrow your phone, please.”

Fjord smirks and sets his phone down on the desk.

**Me: This is Caleb. Yasha seems very nice. We should ask her to eat with us.**

**Beau (pink skin woman facepalm): This is Beau. Fuck You**

**

“I’m not… great with computers,” Yasha admits, opening her laptop as she sits down. “Can I pick your brains while we eat?”

“Yeah, of course.” Beau shrugs casually. “We like, do study groups together a lot, you know, research… reading… studying. Stuff.”

Yasha nods and tilts her screen toward Beau, who leans in and starts reading something. “I’ve got this paper about the cryptocurrency bubble, and I understand the financial part, but, um, a lot of the technical details…”

Nott leans over Yasha’s other side and frowns. “LTC?”

“Litecoin,” Caleb mumbles, breaking a few grapes off of the stems and popping them into his mouth.

“Oh.” Beau scans the page further. “XMR sounds like… a file extension…”

“Monero,” Caleb says, blushing a little as people turn to look at him. “They are both. Cryptocurrencies.”

“I thought that was what Bitcoin was.” Fjord frowns.

“It is one of them.” Caleb swallows and shrugs nervously. “It is just. Nerd stuff.”

“I thought XMR was a programming language.” Molly frowns.

Caleb chews a few grapes and snaps his fingers. “You are, um, thinking of XML.”

Yasha eases her laptop and holds it across the circle to Caleb, who takes it. “Can you help me translate some of this? I’ve only gotta write three or four pages.”

“S-sure,” Caleb says, trying to ignore the burning stare of Beau behind her.

**

**Me: Hello! I have made a new group chat! Because now I have a real phone number and a real phone!**

**Jester (lollipop): CONGRATULATIONS CALEBBBBBBBBB (balloon emoji) (balloon emoji)**

**Nott (green skin fist): (green skin waving emoji)**

**Fjord (notebook): (green skin waving emoji)**

**Nott (green skin fist): haha we match**

**Fjord (notebook): were practically twins**

Beau sends a screenshot of the new group chat, revealing that Caleb’s name is followed by a pager emoji.

**Me: Fuck off it is not that old**

**Beau (collision symbol): it is a BURNER PHONE and you are a DRUG DEALER**

**Jester (lollipop): BE NICE BEAU**

**

**Me: Hi Molly. This is Caleb.**

**Molly: WHAT**

**Me: (pink skin waving)**

**Molly: you said end of semester**

**Molly: I DISTINCTLY remember**

**Me: The store had a very good deal and so my dad bought early.**

**Molly: I’m freaking out**

**Me: Is this bad?**

**Me: You mean happy I think**

**Molly: I do! We can talk whenever we want now**

**Molly: Are they going to read your texts? Are they those parents?**

**Me: I have already jailbreaked the phone, I made many changes, it is not a problem**

**Molly: Did you use cryptocurrency to to break it open**

**Me: You do not use money to jailbreak a phone**

**Molly: I’m just teasing.**

**Molly: Can your old drug lord burner phone get pictures?**

Caleb turns beet red and pulls his comforter over his head.

**

Nott sends Caleb a picture of Frumpkin on top of a cage, slightly blurry.

**Nott (green skin fist): He got really chatty when he saw me and then I think he realized you weren’t with me and now he’s PISSED**

**Me: Really???**

**Nott (green skin fist): idk if he’s really pissed but I really think he looked for you once he saw me**

**Me: I love him**

**Nott (green skin fist): (cat heart eyes)**

**Me: Please send more pictures**

**

In the first after school Robotics class, Caleb more or less hides behind Fjord while the teacher explains how LEGO Mindstorm works and what programming languages they’re going to be using.

“You’ll pick everything up,” Fjord murmurs under his breath, so the other students can’t hear. “You’re gonna be fine.”

“Nein, I already understand how to do this,” Caleb mumbles. “I just. Wanted to mess around with it and make friends.”

Fjord turns around and squints at him. “And how’re you gonna do that from behind me?”

Caleb smiles awkwardly. “Um. I will come out soon.”

“There’s brand new kids! From the school across town!” Fjord nudges his chin toward a shy looking half elf girl whose right arm is in a green cast. “She looks weird! Go sit with her.”

“You think so?”

Fjord snorts and pushes off of the table he was leaning against, waving to a random human and sitting down next to him. Caleb, now alone, looks around at the paired tables and feels himself start to sweat. The girl notices and looks around too, lifting her (right) arm to wave and wincing when it starts to pull. “Ow! Jeez. Um. Do you want to sit here?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More CR content on [tumblr](https://ivadeshin.tumblr.com/). Come say hi.


	10. Chapter 10

Cali turns out to be even weirder than Caleb and very, extremely sweet.

“We could exchange phone numbers,” Caleb says, as everyone begins to file out of the room. “I mean, not - I have -”

“You have a girlfriend already,” Cali finishes for him, nodding. She’s clearly just excited for the prospect of friendship.

“N-no,” Caleb says, and tilts his head a little. “I have. I think I have a.”

“You have a, um.” Cali bites her lip. “A somebody?”

“I think I do?” Caleb makes an apologetic face. “Anyway, um, I have a phone now, and. I could send you links for app stuff…”

“Sure.” She smiles goofily at his phone. “Wow. Retro.”

**

Jester pulls out a small shiny tube and holds it out to Nott. “The subscription box sent me a green concealer stick by accident, and they’re sending me a new one, but you can have this one.”

Nott takes it, popping the lid off and frowning. “It’s not lipstick?”

Caleb squints at it. “It looks like lipstick,” he confirms.

Jester grins. “It does! But you put it on zits and things. It’s really easy to use.” She mimes dabbing something on her cheek and then using her fingertip to smooth it out.

“I dunno how you girls keep up with all that stuff,” Fjord murmurs wonderingly. “There’s like seven things to do one thing…”

“It’s not that bad,” Jester says, waving a hand.

“It’s  _crazy_ ,” Fjord counters.

“Well, that’s great for you to say, mister, mister ‘I already have a perfect complexion, and my hair is always just right, I do not  _need_ any product  _ever_  it just  _stays where I brush it_ , blah blah blah’.” Jester sticks her tongue out and Fjord’s eyebrows fly up, clearly not sure how to take that.

“Yeah, fuck you,” Beau chips in.

Caleb laughs.

**

Molly doesn’t always visit at lunch, but as soon as Caleb has a phone, he texts ahead of time to ask if he can drop in. Caleb always says yes, and one day when he mentions it to Jester in the hallway, she uses UberEats to bring fresh donuts, and that’s pretty much the best day ever.

**Me: You are a great friend**

**Jester (lollipop emoji): STOP TEXTING ME AND LOOK AT HIS LIPS!**

Caleb looks up from his phone and over to Molly, who’s singing a few bars of something for Nott and completely unaware that a small bit of jelly filling is clinging to his lower lip.  _Beau_  has noticed, and catches Caleb staring. She locks her gaze with him and shakes her head judgmentally.

They’ve been teasing him about this for a while now, on and off - he never makes any kind of move, even though the hidden side of the school exterior is safe ground. Caleb steels himself and leans over the usual eight inches of distance Molly gives him when he sits down to join, nudging his shoulder into his.

“Hm?” Molly turns to him, curious and a little excited.

“Your mouth,” Caleb says, and gestures to his own lower lip. Molly blinks and licks down, catching it and blinking at the sweetness.

“Oh! Jeez, how long was that there.”

Caleb shrugs, and Molly rolls his eyes at himself and turns back to Nott, finishing the song. Caleb swallows and stays where he is, closer, finally inching his hand until his fingertips are brushing Molly’s in the grass.

**

Caleb sits in the back of AP Math.

**Fjord (notebook emoji): my maaaan**

**Jester (lollipop emoji): SO CUTE**

**Beau (collision emoji): that’s practically third base in germany**

**Me: stfu**

“Mr. Weiss?”

Caleb looks up to the teacher, blinking innocently.

“Can you give us the answer?”

Caleb nods and glances at the board. “Ein hun - I am sorry - one hundred and twenty four liters.”

“Right,” the teacher says, and moves on, sufficiently appeased that the well behaved exchange student who always knows the answer must be paying attention.

**

**Me: Can I ask you something odd?**

**Nott (green fist emoji): yeah of course**

**Me: Are you happy?**

**Nott (green fist emoji): ???**

**Me: I only mean, things are very different now, for you**

**Nott (green fist emoji): you mean since you enrolled?**

**Me: yes and sometimes I think, maybe it is not what she wanted**

**Nott (green fist emoji): it’s NOT**

**Nott (green fist emoji): but it doesn’t matter, it’s great**

**Nott (green fist emoji): I never tried to make friends because I didn’t think anyone would want to**

**Me: because of your family?**

**Nott (green fist emoji): yeah p much**

Several minutes pass.

**Nott (green fist emoji): I’m sure someone’s told you by now**

**Me: No.**

**Me: A few days after we started hanging out**

**Me: a snot girl in English asked me if I knew where your parents were**

**Me: and I asked her to not talk about you like that**

**Nott (green fist emoji): oh**

**Nott (green fist emoji): I guess I always assumed**

**Nott (green fist emoji): also “snotty”**

**Me: Thankyou. Snotty**

**Me: You do not have to tell me unless you want to. I do not care. We are friends.**

**

“Jester used to travel a lot,” Fjord says, looking around and ensuring they’re alone before leaning back against the brick wall and staring at the tree line. “So when we met in freshman year she, um, she didn’t really have a lot of experience being around other kids?”

Caleb tilts his head. “Because her family traveled… for work?”

“Just her mom,” Fjord corrects. “Yeah, she used to do diplomatic stuff back and forth so she just had tutors.”

“I am trying to picture.” Caleb smiles a little. “Very rich, very chatty, already?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Fjord wheezes.

“And her English was…?”

“Fine, just, her accent was a little thicker.” Fjord shrugs nonchalantly and Caleb is ecstatic to see through that.

“You  _like_ her accent,” Caleb hisses through a grin.

Fjord hunches a little and pulls his hoodie down over his head, mumbling indistinctly.

“Ohh, you look like me, I think.”

“I don’t like this new, confident you,” Fjord jokes, side-eyeing him. “Old Caleb never teased anybody.”

“I am an asshole now,” Caleb agrees happily. Fjord smiles back as Caleb’s phone vibrates.

**Molly: You have free period rn right??**

**Me: Yes**

**Me: You have Sylvan?**

**Molly: The sub isn’t showing**

“Who is it?”

“Molly. His substitute teacher is not there.”

Fjord nods, then suddenly laughs and straightens and grabs his bag.

“Wh-what?”

“His sub isn’t there,” Fjord repeats, stuffing his textbook away and zipping up.

**Molly: It’s 10:09**

Caleb reaches for Fjord frantically. “What does that mean? I do not - it is 10:09, is that important?”

“It’s almost ten minutes!” Fjord shakes his hands out jazz style. “Don’t they have subs in Germany?”

“I went to a weird nerd kid school, things were not the same there-” Caleb looks down at his phone. “Why are you running away? Stay and help me! I will stop teasing you about you-know-who!”

**Molly: Are you on the grass?**

“If a teacher doesn’t show after ten minutes of class and there’s no note or sign or whatever you can just  _bail_ ,” Fjord says quickly. “Leave. You can leave.”

“I know ‘bail’,” Caleb says, and sits up straighter as the other shoe drops. “He - he wants to - oh.”

“ _Yeah_ ,” Fjord says, waggling his eyebrows.

“No  _not_  - I do not know, I do not think that, I -” Caleb stumbles through his English and types back.

**Me: Yes**

“I’ll be in the library. Have  _fun_.” Fjord does more jazz hands as he trots away, leaving Caleb very alone. Caleb looks around several times and then back at his phone clock, and then his watch, which both still say 10:09.

**Molly: Everyone’s bags are zipped up we are so fuckin ready to not learn**

**Molly: Is it ok if I come bug you?**

**Me: Yes of course**

Does he really want to…? Caleb switches to camera mode and flips the screen, pushing his hair back and scowling at his face, wishing said camera wasn’t like eight launches ago. He accidentally takes a pictures and winces, scrambling back through his photo album to delete it.

**Molly: FOOTSTEPS IN THE HALL (eyes emoji)**

**Molly: hahaha it’s just Bosun lol he’s late af**

**Me: You are almost free from learning!**

**Me: Or I can help you with Sylvan if you want**

Study group. Alone. That sounds doable.

**Molly: We can do whatever**

What does  _that_  mean!?

His phone buzzes again, and a new window appears.

**Cali (robot emoji): hey those links were SO HELPFUL**

**Cali (robot emoji): everything the teacher said makes way more sense now**

Caleb makes a pained sound and switches to the other window.

**Molly: ok omw**

**Me: ok**

Repeating the same two letters lower case sounds relaxed. Noncommittal. It’s probably-

**Cali (robot emoji): you seem to really know about computers. did you study them in your home country?**

**Cali (robot emoji): I never asked where it was. it sounds like maybe Germany but there’s other countries that kind of sound like that**

Caleb tries to think of what Americans do to ask people to stop texting.

**Cali (robot emoji): like austria and maybe belgium i guess**

**Cali (robot emoji): denmark?? probably not. anyway you can probably tell each one from each other even if they’re talking in english**

Caleb goes back to the Messages screen and holds her chat down, swiping right and relieved to find English language GUIs have the same options. “Hide Alerts,” he reads aloud under his breath.

“Hey!” Molly says, making Caleb jump guiltily. Molly blinks, hand still on the cafeteria door. “Everything okay?”

“Yes.” He clicks his phone off and sets it down. “Hi. No Sylvan!”

Molly beams and drops his bag down, sitting just a  _little_  closer to Caleb than normal, which is probably just coincidence. He’s wearing a black t-shirt with lots of rips, and his favorite red jeans.

Caleb assumes they’re his favorite. He wears them a lot, and they look nice on him.

“We probably still have a quiz tomorrow,” Molly is saying, tucking a strand of hair back behind his horn and pulling his workbook out. “But I studied and I wasn’t, like,  _panicked_  for today, but I definitely won’t say no to some more time to-” He stops, frowning at Caleb’s face. “Are you alright?”

“J-ja.”

“Am I talking too fast again?”

“No.”

Molly nods, and to Caleb’s surprise, he looks a little hesitant. “Is it… okay? That I’m here?”

“Of course,” Caleb says, a little too loudly. “You are, you are welcome in the lunch spot any time, everyone has said so.”

“Yeah, but, I mean,” Molly gestures around them, to the lack of anybody else. “You just seem. Maybe, uncomfortable?”

Caleb looks down at his phone case. “I am happy, that. You do not have Sylvan.” He curls his fingers against the blades of grass for a moment before reaching across, putting his hand over Molly’s.

“Oh.” Molly’s expression is a mystery, because Caleb’s too scared to look up at it, but he sounds happy. He scoots a little closer, leaning back against the warm brick. Caleb smiles. “Can I ask you something?”

His heart races. “Yes.”

“If your parents didn’t have you under lock and key, what would you wanna do?” When Caleb doesn’t immediately answer, Molly continues, a little faster now: “I just mean, sometimes, sometimes I want to - I don’t always know if you’re not doing something because you don’t want to do it, or because you don’t want to get caught.”

Caleb takes a breath looks up at the treeline, and tries to translate all that in his head. “What I,” he says, and then stops. “I… I like holding your hand. And. When your tail is on my back.”

Molly nods, drawing his knees up to his chest. He keeps his hand under Caleb’s.

“I wish I could visit you more more often. Gustav is nice. I like your room, it is…” Caleb gestures huge impact over and over, and Molly laughs. “Very… it is, a lot? Many things, lots of color, like you.”

“Uh-huh.” Molly waits, but Caleb can’t think of what else to say, worried about the dorky way his grammar ends up sounding, or accidentally coming off as desperate. “Um, but you’d tell me if I suggested something and you didn’t wanna do it?”

Caleb stares at him.

“B-because you didn’t wanna do it, or because you didn’t wanna get caught, or, you know, whatever reason.” Molly shrugs and his torn up shirt moves a little, exposing a collarbone and shoulder. “Sorry. I think I’m being pushy.”

Caleb is burning up under his hoodie. “No,” he assures. “I do not think so.”

“Okay,” Molly says, and squirms a little, pulling his hand back to dig a pencil out from his bag and find the right page in his workbook. “Um. So we’re doing opinion statements this week, like, ‘I like soup’ or ‘I don’t like her’ or ‘I feel ambiguous about that’ or whatever, and,” Molly lifts his bare shoulder in a half shrug.

“{I think you are great,}” Caleb says.

Molly’s ear tips flick a little. “Is that an opinion statement?”

“Yes,” Caleb says. “{Sometimes I think about laying in the grass out here and kissing you.}”

Molly laughs at his own incompetence, tail curling behind him. “Um, I got the ‘I’ and the ‘you’ and the present tense, but that’s it.”

“It’s okay,” Caleb reassures, feeling strangely free now. “You are picking it up fast. Do you want to read them to me, or should I read them to you?” He gestures to the workbook.


	11. Chapter 11

Caleb helps Molly conjugate Sylvan verbs and Molly looks over Caleb’s paper, fixing his English grammar.

“It’s mostly perfect,” Molly reassures him, pen drifting down the double-spaced printout.

“Thank you,” Caleb says, floating somewhere between cloud nine and the mythical land of the Seldarine. Molly’s shoulder is pressed up to his as he edits. The warmth radiates through Caleb’s hoodie and they have been sitting like this for the last ten minutes. “I appreciate your help.”

Molly smiles and flips the page over, biting his lip. “I wish we had Infernal,” he says, continuing to scan. “My Infernal is fine. I bet Nott’s Goblin is great, too.”

Caleb thinks about it and frowns. He could have tested out of Sylvan, and then gotten out of having to take a language class - he decided to take AP Sylvan for the GPA boost and the college credit. “There are... no tests to take, to prove you already have a second language?”

“Not for the ‘unpopular’ languages,” Molly says, doing little air quotes with his free hand. “Orcish has gotten some traction and it’s available to test out of, but not all schools provide the class... Goblin and Infernal still don’t have standardized tests to prove you can speak them.”

“That is.” Caleb frowns. “Racist, I think.”

“Yup.” Molly pops the ‘p’ and sighs. “But it’s not so bad. You can get, like, government pamphlets now in those languages... they’re starting to become more used in stuff, more available.”

Caleb nods and watches Molly circle a verb and move it across the sentence with an arrow. “Scheisse,” he mutters.

“It’s okay. You always put it at the end, right?”

“Almost always,” Caleb admits. He’s looking at the print-out too, and very close - taking a risk, he lets his head drop just a little bit further, until it’s resting on Molly’s shoulder.

Molly doesn’t move for a second, and Caleb swallows and waits for ... for something to happen. Molly’s skin feels warm against his temple, and he smells  _great,_ and Caleb doesn’t want to move. Molly doesn’t end up asking him to. Doesn’t say anything, just resumes reading.

“Your - Gustav, he is a half elf.”

“Yeah.” Molly laughs, already knowing what he’s going to ask. “He speaks Sylvan with, like, the equivalent of a hick accent. He’ll help us if we really need it but he doesn’t want us all to sound like farmers.”

Caleb giggles. “Farmers!”

“There are elf farmers,” Molly says, pretending to admonish him.

“I am imagining, what is it,” Caleb laughs further, using it as an excuse to turn a little bit further into the warmth of Molly’s shoulder. He feels a few strands of hair brush against his forehead. “The famous American painting, of the farmer and his wife, with the... the big farm tool., he is holding...”

“American Gothic,” Molly says suddenly, snorting. “Yeah, and we’ve stressed Gustav to baldness, it’s not a bad likeness.”

Caleb covers his face a little. “I feel mean. He is nice.”

“Ayup,” Molly says, taking on a slow drawl. “I figure it’s about time to round up the {cows}.”

Caleb snorts.

“{I like the cows,}” Molly says, making it sound almost indecipherable with this new American southern accent.

Caleb has to lean away to fall on the grass, laughing. “Your. Your grammar is right!”

“{Do you like the cows!}” Molly shouts, louder than Caleb’s wheezes for air. “Caleb! I have a question!”

“{I like the cows,}” Caleb wheezes, curling up. Molly looms over him, excited by his collapse and trying to make it worse.

“Caleb, do you know what else they have at farms?”

“No!” Caleb curls up tighter as Molly grabs his shoulders lightly and shakes them. “No more farm!”

“They have {potaaatoes!}”

“It does not sound like that! It should never sound like that!” Caleb laughs and fake-kicks at Molly’s legs, pretending to fend him off.

“I sound authentic!” Molly insists.

“You sound like a man on a tractor!”

“I sound like an  _elf_  on a tractor!” Molly snickers as Caleb grabs at his wrists, and when Caleb pulls them off his shoulders, Molly falls forward, sitting over Caleb  with his hands planted on either side of his head. Caleb stares up at him and Molly beams back down at him, panting. “I’m a great elf,” he adds.

“You are.”

Molly’s phone is vibrating behind them. Neither of them moves.

“Can I kiss you?” Molly asks. Caleb feels his heart slam against his rib cage. “Just your cheek,” he adds. 

Molly’s shirt is draping down, and Caleb can see a beautiful section of lavender skin - upper arm, shoulder, chest, all heaving slightly. Caleb swallows the lump in his throat, stomach still aching from the laughter and feeling sick and wonderful all at once.  “Uh-huh.”

Molly doesn’t do it at first, looking down at him, at his face and his hoodie, his mouth, finally bending down and pressing his lips chastely to Caleb’s left cheek. 

“Thanks,” Molly says, and his horn jewelry jingles as he sits up and looks down at his lap. “I, um.” His tail does a weird curling thing that Caleb hasn’t seen before. “That was nice.”

“Yes,” Caleb agrees, forgetting any more complex English than that. He pushes himself up after a moment, sitting and tugging his hoodie back down where it’s ridden up at his stomach. His face hurts from smiling.

“Shit,” Molly says, looking at his phone. “Four minutes.”

“That is-” Caleb licks his lips. “That is enough time. You have Math? If you go now-”

“Yeah-” Molly wobbles to his feet, his cheekbones a beautiful shade of violet, smiling almost shyly. “Um, I’ll, I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Yes,” Caleb says, already excited to see him again. “Lunch.”

Molly holds a hand up in a wave and turns to the cafeteria door, and his tail is still doing a weird shape that Caleb has definitely never seen before.

**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Art by the _incredible_ [jubilucky](http://jubilucky.tumblr.com/) \- see it [here](http://jubilucky.tumblr.com/post/176067678287/ivadeshins-5-soda-maximum-au-is-a-balm-to-my) and please compliment them on their incredible work! The perfect red jeans and the perfect brown hoodie both originate from [this incredible piece](http://caitercates.tumblr.com/post/175856212350/i-have-lost-all-control-of-my-life-and-ivadeshin) done by [caitercates](http://caitercates.tumblr.com/), which I definitely haven’t had open in a tab since someone sent it to me, I definitely don’t just tab over to it on occasion and smile like a goof, nope, doesn’t happen) )


	12. Chapter 12

**Fjord (notebook): SOOOOO?**

**Me: It was nice**

**Me: Thank you for running away**

**Me: That sounds mean. I do not mean it to be mean**

**Fjord (notebook): I getcha**

**Fjord (notebook): are we gonna see him at lunch**

**Me: Yes**

**Fjord (notebook): am i allowed to tell anyone? bc if jester finds out i knew and didn’t tell her i’m going to jester jail**

**Me: What is Jester jail**

**Fjord (notebook): it’s where she pretends she can’t hear you but like REALLY LOUDLY pretends she can’t hear you (green skin laughing emoji)**

**Me: it sounds funny**

**Fjord (notebook): yeah well don’t send me there**

**Me: I will tell**

**

**Me: Molly kissed me on the cheek. This is the official press release. I am not taking questions**

**Beau (collision symbol): YOOOOOOOOO**

**Jester (lollipop): DLFJKLS**

**Nott (green skin fist): !!**

**Fjord (notebook): (microphone emoji) mr weiss, a question from exandria daily**

**Me: I was very clear sir**

**

**Nott (green fist emoji): Was it great??**

**Me: Yes (pink skin blushing emoji) I feel like I am a huge dork but I am a happy dork**

**Nott (green fist emoji): (clapping emoji) (balloon emoji) (clapping emoji)**

**

Caleb barely pays attention through AP Chemistry, but it’s nothing he hasn’t read ahead for. He flips through Molly’s facebook page looking at pictures, and then at an intro to Infernal guide, but without the audio to help him understand the new phonemes, he can’t figure out much. It would probably be too much to pick up a few words.

(He’s still kept the Celestial under his hat, which is pretty much the indefinite plan. Only complete nerds teach themselves Celestial.)

“Mr. Weiss,” the teacher says sharply.

Caleb looks up. “Ze rate of production of neutrons exceeds zeir rate of consumption,” he says dutifully.

This earns him a suspicious look. “…correct.”

**

**Me: Yes I am German**

**Me: Sorry I could not answer for a while**

**Cali (robot emoji): that’s okay! sorry for spamming. I get excited sometimes**

**Me: No problem. It is good to be excited about things I think**

**Cali (robot emoji): :)**

**

**Jester (lollipop): NEW LUNCH GROUP CHAT!!! NOBODY BUY LUNCH TODAY!! LEAVE YOUR BAG LUNCHES IN THE FRIDGE**

**Beau (collision symbol): why**

**Nott (green skin fist): welcome molly and yasha**

**Unknown Number: hi. i can join today. whats going on?**

**Molly: what’s up?**

**Jester (lollipop): I HAD A GROUPON**

**

Caleb joins Nott and Jester on the grass and looks around. “We are fasting today?”

Nott peers at Jester. “Yeah, are there Groupons for fasting? I’ve got a perfectly good tupperware full of leftover spaghetti in the fridge.”

Jester rolls her eyes, leaning back and looking toward the direction of the main road. “It’ll be here soon,” she mutters, checking something on her phone.

Caleb catches Nott beaming at him, and he smiles back shyly. “You seem happy,” Nott says. Caleb nods, laughing when Nott bumps into his shoulder. He bumps back. “I’m really happy for you.”

“Yessss,” Jester hisses, hopping onto her feet and waving to a figure in the distance. “HERE!” she shouts. “MISTER PIZZA GUY!”

“ _Pizza?_ ” Nott says reverently.

“Pizza,” Caleb confirms, eyes wide as he watches a human with dark skin and braids walk toward them with a stack of boxes.

The cafeteria door opens, and Beau just barely misses running into Jester as she runs past her to meet the guy halfway. “What-” Beau looks toward the delivery man and then throws her fist in the air. “Motherfucking  _pizza!_ ”

Molly and Fjord are turning the corner from the football field just as Jester is returning with a stack of boxes and two heavy plastic bags hanging on her wrists. “Fjoooord, help please,” Jester shouts, and Fjord books it like a man on fire to take the boxes, saying something to her as she fiddles with the plastic bag handles and walks back with him.

“I love Groupon,” Beau says reverently, moving random phones and textbooks out of the way to make room in the developing circle.

“Me too, and I do not even use it,” Caleb agrees. “Um, hi.”

“Hi,” Molly says back, leaning his bag against the wall and sitting  _directly_  next to him, knee touching his. He looks quiet and happy and Caleb begins to feel a stupid smile creeping up on his face. Caleb bites his lip and pulls a box forward as they’re set down.

“What, um, what kind-”

“Any kind,” Molly says quickly. “Okay, actually, no mushrooms please.”

“There’s a veeeggie lovers,” Jester starts ticking them off her fingers. “And a meeeat lovers, and a pepperoni, and a cheese. So, no mushrooms anywhere.”

“No fungus lovers,” Beau says, pretending to sound disappointed, and then makes a face. “Wow, that sounds even grosser than I thought it would.”

“This is number  _three_ ,” Nott says, pulling a diet soda out of the plastic bags and holding it front of Caleb before twisting it open.

“Three,” Caleb repeats, and leans forward to dig through the bag to find that there are several water bottles. “Jester.”

“Beau always wants water, and  _you_  always want water, so there are three, just in case.” Jester looks up in the air as she ticks more things off her fingers. “Diet for me and Nott, and regular for Fjord…”

Footsteps behind Caleb have broken into a run and Caleb turns to see Yasha with a focused, hungry expression. “Fuckin  _starving_ ,” Yasha says, knee-sliding in next to Molly and looking over the boxes with an extremely hungry expression. “Jester, you ordered, right? What do I owe you?”

Jester, who’s now using both her hands to prop the veggie box open and grab a slice, waves it away dismissively with her tail. “No, no.”

“She just does this,” Beau says, around a mouthful. “You can’t, she never,”

“Yeah,” Fjord agrees, chewing.

Molly grins at Yasha as she processes this, then sighs and leans forward to grab a slice of pepperoni. “Well, thank you,” she says.

“Yes. Thank you, Jester,” Caleb chimes in. The others sing it in unison.

**

Molly’s using the pizzeria-branded paper napkins to wipe at his mouth when Caleb looks at him and imagines what would happen if he leaned in and kissed the corner of his mouth, just once, without saying anything.

Jester would probably coo. Beau would probably not like seeing ‘PDA’. Yasha might not like seeing her brother get kissed. Caleb’s not sure.

Something is tapping the back of his hand. Caleb looks down and sees Molly’s tail, hidden behind their touching knees, giving him playful little swats. Stifling a grin, Caleb curls his fingers around it, waiting to see if Molly pulls it away. He doesn’t. So Caleb squeezes it gently like a held hand and tries to pay attention to what Fjord is saying about football.

**

**Molly: So today was pretty great**

**Me: I liked it also**

**Me: Too**

**Molly: When will your parents let you go out after school again?**

**Me: It is not an exact thing I will ask**

**Molly: will asking get you in trouble (nervous blue skin emoji)**

**Me: No! They might just say no**

**Molly: Do you have to get all As**

**Molly: And apply to ivy leagues**

**Me: I am back. My dad was in the middle of a phone call. He says this weekend I can have a Saturday or Sunday**

**Me: I do not have to get all As. I can get two B+s each semester**

**Me: And I don’t know about college yet… our status here is complicated**

**Molly: Will you maybe get sent back???**

**Me: No I can prevent that**

**Me: but I have to do more things to make sure everything is okay**

**Me: can I explain Saturday?**

**Molly: Yeah! where do you want me to take you?**

**Me: I do not know**

**Me: I do not care actually**

**Molly: (happy blue skin emoji)**

**Molly: we can come over to my place first? and then FRUMPKIN WILL STOP GLARING AT ME**

**Me: what!**

**Molly: i think i smell like you or something from hanging out together??**

**Molly: he gets this squint like “WHERE ARE U HIDING MY FAV PERSON”**

**

When Caleb walks to Moondrop street alone, he feels excited but weirdly alone without Nott or any of the others. He takes a moment to admire Yasha’s rose bushes in the front before knocking.

A halfling girl opens the door. She’s wearing heavy eyeliner and a band t-shirt.

Caleb blinks at her for a moment, finally spotting the freckle on her nose that Molly mentioned. “Hi, Mona,” he says quietly.

Her eyebrows lift in mild surprise. “Hey,” she says, a little impressed. “…Kevin? Shit, that’s not right.”

“Caleb. It is okay.”

“ _Caleb_ ,” Mona repeats, nodding and leaning back. “Caleb, Caleb, Caleb. Got it. Molly! Caleb’s here!” She turns back to him. “Sorry, I’m shit with names. Come on in.” She opens the door further, gesturing to the couch before disappearing down the hallway.

There’s a thump down the hallway, and then Mona’s laughter as she opens a door.

“You okay in there?” Mona’s saying. Molly’s saying something back, and Mona laughs again, leaving the door open and going into another room where music is playing.

Caleb smiles to himself and avoids the couch for now, instead looking down the other hallway to the sliding glass door. He can recognize most of the flowers, but hasn’t a clue what they’re called in English. They’re waving softly in the breeze.

“Hey,” Molly says, trotting down the hallway. Caleb turns and blinks at the thin tank top and  _short_  pajama shorts. “I woke up early but then I took a nap and fell back asleep too long, um, but-” Molly notices Caleb’s stare and blushes, and his  _smile_  is - Caleb looks down a this shoes briefly and then back up, smiling back. “You wanna just go hang out with Frumpkin while I find something clean?”

Caleb’s hormones want something completely different right now, but that’s probably better to go unmentioned. “S-sure,”he says instead, and watches Molly nod and disappear into his room again. His tail was curved up again and Caleb’s still pretty sure that’s new.

Tugging at the hem of his hoodie, Caleb walks down the hall and sneaks into the garage, making sure the door shuts completely behind him. There’s a scrabbling noise in the center of the room - Beebles is still there, scar almost gone now, and is entertaining himself by scaling the side of the cage and climbing upside-down on the lid.

“Schnuckiputz,” he singsongs under his breath, kneeling down slowly and then sitting on the poured concrete floor. Beebles regards him a moment before continuing his calisthenics. “Frumpkin? Hallo?”

There’s a few moments of silence, and then Caleb spots a dark orange something out of the corner of his eye, slowly wiggling out from under a pile of rolled-up sleeping bags. He has a bit of white fluff clinging to his ear, and his tail is curled up and forward as he scampers over.

“I know what that means in  _cat_  language, it means you are happy to see me,” Caleb whispers. “Is it the same in Tiefling? Can you tell me?” Frumpkin doesn’t answer, just presses his head firmly into Caleb’s palm and then scrambles into his lap. “Ach, ja, ja, ich verstehe.” He laughs and strokes Frumpkin’s ears flat, making them pop back up when his hand continues down his back. The cat looks  _so much better_ , no longer bony, and the faint gunk around his eyes is gone. “Geht es dir gut? Hm?”

The door clicks open, and Molly slips in, now wearing torn up black jeans and a more opaque tank top. “You got ‘im already,” he says softly.

“J-ja.” Caleb smiles at him and looks down at the cat, who’s tipped over onto his side and partially exposing his belly. He decides to play it safe, continuing to just pet around his face and neck. “Toya is a very good, um, cat doctor? Animal doctor?”

“Vet,” Molly says, coming to sit next to him. “Um, veterinarian.”

Caleb wrinkles his nose. “Vet is also, someone who was a soldier?”

“Or someone who’s still a soldier, and they’ve fought in a war. Yeah, it’s a little weird.” Molly grins and holds his hand out to Frumpkin, but he doesn’t notice. “Aw, he loves you best.”

“I am also skinny and orange,” Caleb says, seizing on the opportunity for a joke. “He thinks, ‘ah, big brother’.”

Molly laughs and Caleb feels immensely proud of himself. “You’re not  _Frumpkin_  skinny,” he says, standing up for him. “And if-”

“Meer,” Frumpkin interrupts, because Caleb has stopped petting him to listen to Molly.

“Oh! Oh. I am so sorry, sir.” Caleb rolls his eyes and smooshes Frumpkin’s face  a little between two cupped hands. “Is this better?” Molly watches them play a while, tail swishing behind him. “Try now,” Caleb suggests.

Molly reaches his hand out again, and Frumpkin reaches up with his front paws to capture some fingertips. “See, he just wants to fight me.”

“He is trying to play. Show him it is petting time instead, pet him.”

Molly does as he’s told, lightly scritching along the cat’s side. Frumpkin flips onto his other side and curls up, stretches out, relaxes again.

“He likes it,” Caleb encourages.

“He’s  _so soft_.”

Caleb nods in agreement. “Has Toya… found a person yet? To take him?”

Molly shakes his head. “We just got another vet appointment scheduled, gotta do that first. Toya says his weight’s better enough that he’s almost definitely ready for his free snip. Ready to be neutered,” Molly clarifies, seeing Caleb’s expression, “before he gets adopted. The vet’s office gives - aww.”

Frumpkin’s purrs sound like they should be coming from a bigger cat. His eyes are squinted nearly closed.


	13. Chapter 13

They spend about five more minutes with Frumpkin before Molly insists that he has plans for their day, disappearing into the house, coming back with a stuffed full duffel bag.

“Where are we going?” Caleb asks, as they walk out the front door and Molly leads them to the right.

“It’s a surprise.” Molly grins and walks past the Kart, across the street.

“I think you are the first American I have met that prefers walking,” Caleb remarks. Molly shrugs and looks a little odd for a moment, finally saying,

“I guess I’m used to it. I was on the, um, the streets, in California, before Gustav picked me up.”

Oh. “Homeless,” Caleb translates cautiously, wincing a little when Molly’s ears flick back a bit. He didn’t mean it judgmentally. “My family, um, just before we came here… we were almost homeless.”

Molly frowns in concern. “Really?”

Caleb nods. “We had a little money in the bank, but it was, um, stopped. What is the word in English…”

“Frozen?”

“Yes, danke, frozen.” Caleb smiles hollowly. People’s accounts are frozen for all sorts of reasons, so it’s not too much information to share. Plus, Molly no longer seems self-conscious about his own background, so, mission accomplished.

“That sucks.” Molly pushes a hand through his hair, other hand wrapped around the duffel bag strap, looking at Caleb sidelong. “Are you guys doing okay now?”

Caleb shrugs. “We have, um. An apartment, and we are paying our bills on time… so it is okay.” It’s a one bedroom apartment, and Caleb’s on the couch in the living room, but honestly, who gives a shit. At least they’re safe.

“Okay, cool.” As they walk further, the residential area fades away into the quaint little shopping district, and Caleb looks around trying to predict where Molly might be taking them. He hasn’t let himself think of this as a ‘date’ per se, mostly to keep himself from having some new kind of panic attack; maybe they’ll go to a neat little shop, or a used bookstore.

“Are there used bookstores, um, around here? I think, in many places, they… are not profitable anymore…” Caleb tucks in behind Molly as they wait for a light to change and blushes as Molly’s tail swishes against his calf for a second.

“Not within walking distance, but I think there’s still one on the other side of the river. You like used books?”

“I had to leave most of mine back in Europe.” Caleb shrugs. “I downloaded digital copies, because, you know, I used to own… it is not so bad…”

“I won’t tell anyone,” Molly stage whispers, grinning.

“But sometimes, having a real book is just. Nice.” Caleb tries to think about how to talk about the vanillin in English, or the studies they’ve done on how memory of content is improved with turning pages and holding something in your hand, but he’s missing too many vocabulary words to put the sentences together.

“There’s that face.”

“Huh?” Caleb flushes and looks over.

“You make that face sometimes. You made it a lot when you were helping me with Sylvan.”

Caleb laughs. “Oh. Um, translating face, I think.” He smiles apologetically. “Jester has said before, that sometimes I… stop talking, and look far away… it is that I am, um, trying to figure out how to say the next thing.”

“Nott says you’re way better than when you got here,” Molly points out encouragingly.

“Nott is too nice. But yes, I am a little better since the semester started.”  _Much_  better now that he’s talking to more than one person, listening to cross-talk, hanging around people who will talk slower when he asks them to, or explain their turns of phrase. “Back home, I did not have much English class. Mostly tv and music.”

Molly’s ears perk up. “What’d you watch?”

“Sometimes, anime is -” Caleb rolls his eyes and hides behind the cowl of his hoodie as Molly laughs.

“Sorry! Sorry. Go on.”

“…sometimes it is translated into English, before many other European languages… and, you know. British comedies. American stuff too.” Caleb squints at Molly. “Also. I have seen your Alchemist poster.”

“Alchemist?”

“I forget the title in English. All metal alchemist?”

“Fullmetal. Okay, okay, fair. That one’s Mona’s fault.” Molly pretends to bump into Caleb by accident as they turn a corner, and Caleb grins and bumps him back.

“Where we are going, are there, um. Water fountains?”

“Not really. Hold on.” Molly slings the duffel bag strap off his shoulder, moving over to the side and using his body as a shield to block Caleb’s vision while he rummages through the bag.

“What is in there?”

“Surpriiises,” Molly singsongs, and zips the bag back up and spins around with a cool (?) bottle of water. Caleb takes it, unscrews the cap, and drinks a third of it down.

Caleb catches Molly watching him, which he - he’s not sure if he was watching him or  _watching_  him, and Caleb feels his face turn beet red as he screws the cap back on. “Okay, let’s,”

“This way,” Molly says a little loudly, and points down the road.

The shops and cafes give way to restaurants. Most of them are priced more toward Beau or even Jester’s tastes, and as it’s Sunday, several are bustling with brunch diners indoors and out on the umbrellaed patios.

“What is it called,” Caleb says thoughtfully, “the drink they are all drinking?”

“Mimosas,” Molly replies with a grin. “Why, you want one?”

“They have alcohol.”

“Yeah, but you’re German. Haven’t you had booze before?”

“Ja, but. Not here.” Caleb runs a hand through his hair. “Also, champagne tastes weird.”

Molly giggles, pulling him mischievously down a side alley between a pair of two-story restaurants. Caleb gets a sudden flashback to hiding in the Starbucks alley with Nott.

“Where are we going?” he asks.

“To Ginger’s,” Molly says, ears ticking up happily. He knocks on the side door and opens it, letting out a heavy stream of clattering and shouts from the restaurant kitchen. Caleb blinks a few times before realizing that Molly’s holding the door open for him.

“We… work?” Caleb asks, just as someone carrying trash bags scoots past Molly and toward the dumpster.

“Don’t leave that open, Moll,” the man says. “Is Yasha working today?”

“No, I’m just bugging you guys.” Molly grins. “Jake said I could use the roof.”

The man shrugs, lifting the dumpster lid and throwing the bags in. “Sure, help yourself.”

Caleb walks into the kitchen, hugging the wall and trying not to interrupt the chaotic flow that seems to be going on. There are several stacks of pancakes on the closest counter, and a gnome on a stool is completing each dish with little tubs of butter and syrup. Further on, a machine that must be the dish-washer is rumbling loudly. A radio is playing music in Spanish.

“Hey, who’re you?” A new human in an apron asks, and Caleb freezes. The man doesn’t like this reaction, setting a stack of plates down and coming toward him.

“He’s with me,” Molly says, grabbing his arm. “We’re hanging out on the roof.”

“Oh.” The man stops and blinks. “Yasha working today?”

“Nope, sorry.” Molly pulls on Caleb, and it takes two or three tries before it registers, and Caleb follows Molly down an unlit corridor and up a stairwell.

It’s very dark and much quieter than the kitchens, and then it’s bright, extremely bright, with some of the sounds of traffic down below and the gentle sound of wind. Caleb swallows and tries to adjust, walking past the door propped open with a cinder block and onto the patio roof. There are wooden crates on one side, and two old cafeteria-style tables with built in umbrellas that have seen better days, and a random assortment of outdoor and camping chairs. He takes it all in a moment, blinking several times.

“Sorry,” Molly’s saying, “it was really noisy down there and I didn’t realize it might freak you out a little.”

“It is okay,” Caleb says a bit distantly. “This is where we are going?”

Caleb is just aware enough to see Molly’s ears and tail droop a little in the corner of his eyes. “It’s not great,” Molly says, hands on the duffle bag strap. “I don’t know, there’s - there’s the park, but that’s really public, and I know you always worry about your parents, and-”

Caleb shakes his head. “No, I-” His face breaks out into a shy smile. “I like it very much.”

“It’s dingy,” Molly says, shrugging apologetically.

“We can sit at the tables? Under the umbrellas?”

“Yeah.”

Caleb trots over, moving a couple wooden beer crates out of the way and clearing the table that’s in better shape so they both have all the room they want. A pigeon makes a disgruntled noise and takes flight, finding somewhere quieter, and Caleb laughs to himself.

“You really do like it?”

“Yes, I, you are very thoughtful.” Caleb smiles at him. “I like… you. And. Spending time with you.”

Molly’s ears have gone back up to their normal positions and he’s smiling now too. “Okay. Good. I was worried this was a shitty date.”

Molly begins unzipping the bag and rummaging around in it before freezing.

“…is it okay if this is a date?”

“Yes,” Caleb says, a little too quickly. “If it is okay with you, yes.”

“Okay.” Molly nods and pulls out a small cloth cooler - that must have been where Caleb’s water bottle came from - and then brown paper bags. “Because, um, I sort of only just realized now that if you weren’t cool with that, this would be way too, um,”

“Is this a picnic?”

Molly stops rummaging again and looks at him cautiously.

“I-” Caleb ducks his head, cheeks hurting. “{I like} picnics.”


	14. Chapter 14

“What do they do in Germany for dates?”

Caleb laughs and opens a bag of chips. “I would not know.”

“C’mon.” Molly’s tail flicks behind him, amused. Caleb shrugs and tries to think.

“Same thing as Americans, I guess. Kids go to movies. Adults go to restaurants with the lights at… hmm. Medium lights?”

“With the lights dimmed?”

Caleb nods. “With the lights dimmed.”

“And a single tea light in the middle of the table,” Molly adds in a serious hush, pretending to cup his hands around a tiny candle between them. “To roast… your tiny fancy restaurant marshmallows on.”

Caleb snorts. “On toothpicks?”

“Yeah,” Molly agrees. “You could use the ones that come in hot chocolate mix.”

“Nein, those are… too hard, they are like sugary American cereal pieces. What is that brand Jester tried to - oh, Lucky Charms. Those are not marshmallows!”

“They’re… marshmallow… inspired?” Molly pulls out something wrapped in foil, and it turns out to be half a meatball sub. Caleb makes an interested sound, tugging the bag toward him and rummaging for the other half. “Is your stomach thing getting better?”

Caleb feels a mild rush of embarrassment, but it’s more minor than it would have been several weeks ago. The entire group seems to have settled on offering to share what food they’ve got, happy when he eats full portions and not pressuring him when he can’t. It’s a lot less confrontational than what he gets at home, and he feels a little silly for expecting outsiders to treat him the same as his parents. “Yes,” he says honestly. “I think um, just unpacking… knowing my school schedule… understanding more English…”

“Being settled,” Molly finishes for him. Caleb nods.

“Yes, good word. Settled.”

“Is it that new things, um, stress you out, or was it specifically moving from Germany to here?”

“Much more the second thing.” Caleb tucks some hair behind his ear, taking a deep breath and looking around a little. He can smell faint tobacco smoke from the alley they went in - it seems like the employees take their breaks there instead of up here, and so it’s unsurprising that they haven’t seen anyone else come up. That’s probably why Molly picked it.

“Did you move for work?”

Caleb blinks, a little too lost in thought to make sense of the question.

Molly shrugs. “I mean, your dad, or your mom, did they have to move here for a job.”

“No.” Caleb laughs softly. “Their jobs here are… are not better, I think they are, they, they are much worse, actually.” He unwraps his sub and takes a few bites.

“I’m not making the best conversation to get you hungry, am I.” Molly rubs his horn and looks away.

Caleb wants little more in life than to keep Molly from being sad. “S’ok,” he says around a mouthful of meatball. “Did… you… mag…dese?”

Molly laughs. “Yeah, my own secret recipe. I wanted us to have some hot food but I can’t make much.”

Caleb shakes his head and makes a thumbs up sign, glowering at his thumb when he sees that it’s already got a streak of red sauce on it.

“Oh! Here, hold on.” Molly sorts through the bag, pulling out a large plastic chip clip that’s holding on to a small stack of paper napkins. He pulls a couple out and then sets the clip on the table between them. Caleb’s just finished cleaning himself up when his phone chirps.

**Nott (green fist emoji): sup**

Caleb grins at his phone. “I am going to take a picture and send it to Nott,” he says, and stands up to take a top-down photo of the items spread out on the table. Molly starts to lean back, getting his folded arms out of the shot. “No, it is okay, you are part of the…” Caleb blushes and Molly laughs, leaning in further and crossing his eyes at the camera lens. Caleb takes the picture.

“We should take a selfie later,” Molly is saying, as Caleb clicks through the options to send the attachment to Nott. “My Facebook profile picture is super old.” He stops when Caleb freezes. “Friends take selfies together here, guy friends, it’s-”

“I cannot go on Facebook,” Caleb says too quickly. “I mean, I can. I can look at it but I cannot, no pictures.”

Molly blinks. “Even if I don’t tag you?”

Caleb shakes his head quickly. “I’m sorry, it’s, it’s complicated.”

“How would your parents even  _know?_  I’m not trying to be an asshole, I just…” Molly gestures with the remains of his sandwich. “You filled out that form to not be in the yearbook, and it’s like, there are parts of it I don’t get, I guess.”

“Those two things are not about my parents, exactly.” Caleb looks down at his sub, sitting up a little straighter and making himself finish it before he says anything else that’s going to send him into stomach cramps. He’s almost done when he realizes Molly hasn’t said anything, is waiting on him, aware that there’s more. “I cannot have my face show up on the internet. Neither can my parents. We came to America because we could not hide well in Germany.”

Molly’s voice gets quiet. “Are you serious?”

“Yes.” Caleb crumples up his tinfoil very carefully, turning the corners inward and then the corners made by that, over and over. “It is not, we are not terrorists or something. The German government is not mad at us.”

Molly doesn’t say anything.

“It is hard to explain and I have not told anyone yet. I do not want people to know. I had to… there is a queue you must wait in, they decide if you can m-move to the U.S. and we had to go quickly so, so I made up, I.” Caleb takes in a shuddering breath and realizes he’s trembling a little. He tries to complete the sentence, but his mouth opens and nothing comes out. The table shifts a little as Molly gets up, and Caleb looks up and sees Molly rushing around the side to scoot in next to him, grabbing his hand on the table and squeezing it.

“Are you having a panic attack?”

“I do not know,” Caleb says, and laughs a little desperately. “I am sorry… this… it is all very…”

Molly shakes his head several times, then tilts his head so his left horn is resting gently against Caleb’s right temple. “Um. I can’t remember anything from before I was fourteen.”

Caleb inhales slowly. “A… again, please?”

“I can’t remember anything from my life from before I was fourteen. I only remember things from age fourteen to now.” Molly’s face isn’t visible to Caleb right now, but he sounds like he’s smiling and also like he’s kind of hurt. “Does that help? I’m not trying to one-up you, I’m just. Trying to make sure you don’t feel weird.”

That certainly wasn’t what Caleb was expecting to hear. “You… hit your head? Something hit your head?”

“No.” Molly’s thumb strokes over his fingers in slow, gentle sweeps. “They did a bunch of scans because that’s what everyone figured, but there was no, you know, internal swelling, or skull damage, or any brain damage…”

“Are you sick?” Caleb sounds about as scared as he feels.

“No, there’s no reason to think so.” Molly pulls back and frowns at Caleb’s expression “I think I scared you worse. Shit.” He laughs and shakes his head. “I’m sorry. I kind of panicked.”

“But that is real, what you said.”

“Yeah, it’s really real. I don’t remember anything. They think it might be psychological but that’s, like, impossible to rule out, so it’s always on the table? If that makes sense?”

Caleb tries to reach into his mind, searching for what he knows about memories and brains and… “Trauma, sometimes it gets locked up and you cannot … think of it?”

“Yeah.” Molly shrugs. “Like, to be fair, I was in a city famous for runaways and gay homeless kids who got one-way tickets from their families, so if something awful happened to me, I was in good company.”

“I’m sorry, one-way tickets, I do not understand.”

“Like, if your shitty family finds out you’re gay, they give you a one-way ticket to a big city and tell you to never come back…” Molly nods at Caleb’s disgusted expression. “Yeah.”

“That is awful.” Caleb tries to imagine this. “My parents would never…”

“Yeah, mine maybe did.” Molly shrugs. “Or maybe they were great and died! Or, I don’t know.”

“What,” Caleb tries to digest this. “What is your first memory?”

“Like, a haze of a few days where I was lost and trying to find a familiar street, and then I gave up on that and begged, but that wasn’t getting me much money…” Molly peeks up, maybe gauging Caleb’s reaction so far. “Some, um, some working girls found me… wandering around lost, so they sort of adopted me.”

“–what?”

“They were like, ‘You’re a kid! It’s not safe out here!’ They yelled at me and told me I was a fucking idiot and I could get hurt and… and they took me to a Waffle House and bought me like all the food I could eat.” Molly sniffs. Caleb watches his face, the sad sort of calmness of it. “I stayed on one of their couches for a few weeks. I hung out with them a lot and one day they got busted and, um, and the cops thought I was, you know…”

“…also working?”

“Yeah.” Molly laughs. “I busked, sure. Other than that I was in their apartment. One of them had been making me watch  _educational tv_ to make up for the fact that I wasn’t going to school. Like… yeah.”

“Did you get arrested?”

“At first? Sort of? They couldn’t process me because I didn’t have any ID or anything, and the cops, um, were mostly human, it was one of the tiefling girls that finally convinced them I was a young kid, and they did some blood test and were like, ‘oh, shit, you’re a minor’, and then my case changed departments like seven times… finally most of the girls got out by giving up dealers’ names and I went into the foster system.”

Caleb frowns. “So your name is…”

“Made up.” Molly shrugs. “The girls called me ‘Empty Stomach’, and then just ‘Empty’, and that sort of sounded like ‘M.T.’, and so by the time the sting happened I was M.T. It’s sort of dumb.”

“It is not dumb.” Caleb turns his hand awkwardly under Molly’s, wrapping his fingers around Molly’s hand and squeezing it. “I like it a lot.”

Molly snorts and ducks his head a little further. Caleb doubles down, switching his left hand to hold Molly’s so he can reach out with his right hand, initiating a hug across the other boy’s shoulders.

“Do you ever remember more pieces? Or is it just… not there?”

“Just not there.” Molly pulls his hand free, standing up - but it’s only to pull his food to this side of the table, so he can resume eating without moving away. Caleb smiles. “My memory of things now is pretty normal. There’s just, you know, nothing before a certain time.”

Caleb ruminates over this for a while, taking a drink from his water bottle. “Do other people know?”

“Gustav knows. Yasha knows. Tova knows. Bosun and the twins don’t.”

Caleb nods. “I will not say.”

“It’s not  _bad_ , I’m not embarrassed, it’s just… weird.” Molly shrugs. “Like yours, I guess.” When Caleb laughs hollowly, Molly hesitates. “Yours…  _is_  bad?”

“Remember the ‘huge mistake?’”

Molly frowns. “That you texted about? It’s that?  _You_  did -  what the hell could you have done to make your family have to move?” He pales a little and goes quiet. “Did you kill somebody by accident?”

“What!? No.” Caleb slouches on the bench. “I… my friends, we liked computers, and… we thought we were, you know, big shots.” They were so stupid, Caleb thinks. They were  _kids_. “We had, you know, a computer club at school, we would use proxies and do whatever we wanted… we got dark web browsers and decided we would take down one of the little empires on there. They sold, um, very awful videos. And we tricked them and got some information on some of … of the people who made the videos, and leaked it to the police. They were busted. Nobody…”

“You were like  _internet super heroes?_ ”

“No!” Caleb hits the table, making it reverberate. “We were  _idiots_. We could have died. They were criminals and they did not care, and, and, and they, they did not all, they were not all there, they were all in different countries. So some were arrested, the rest were very mad… they traced us, they started calling our houses, watching us on security cameras, they wanted us to pay.”

“Holy shit.”

“We had to tell our parents what we did. Local police could not do anything, these men were in other countries, using spoof phone numbers, hiring…” Caleb buries his face in his arms and shakes.

“Caleb.” Molly’s hand is light between his shoulder blades. Caleb tries to take full breaths, but he can’t, so he just gasps for air as quietly as possible, over and over, until he feels an insistent swatting feeling on his thigh. When he moves his arms to see, it’s Molly’s tail, giving him the gentle little friendly smacks like during their lunches. In spite of himself, Caleb chokes out a brief laugh, and Molly tilts into him and covers his body with his.

“I do, I do not think I make much sense,” Caleb mumbles into Molly’s shirt.

“You tried to stop some shitty people and they tried to get back at you?”

“Yes.”

“And they wouldn’t stop and the cops wouldn’t help?”

“Yes.” Caleb hiccups. “They said they would poison my friend’s family. And burn my house down. They had plans for all three of us.”

Molly holds him tighter.

“I am sorry I am a big mess.” Caleb can feel the perspiration covering his skin getting Molly’s shirt damp. “I think maybe I am not good for dating.”

Molly is still for a moment, then tucks his head in carefully, pressing his lips to a spot on Caleb’s neck. “We’ll just have to keep trying until we’ve both run out of crazy fucking stories.”


	15. Chapter 15

Caleb doesn’t notice when Fjord sits down because he’s in the middle of trying to explain to Jester what happened, while doing his best to not switch back to German.

“It was just a SQL injection, they did not… mitigate against-”

“A sequel  _what?_ ” Jester smacks Fjord’s arm and points to Caleb. “He says he can fix it.”

Caleb doesn’t look up from Jester’s laptop. “Your parents’ company should fire their IT people,” he mumbles.

Fjord’s eyes go round, and he scoots around quickly to try to see what Caleb’s doing. “You can get the website back? Are you serious?”

“Ja, there is a… wie sagt man…” Caleb pushes his hair out of his face and rubs his nose, looking at what the hacker’s gotten done so far. “A rollback.”

“A saved version!? You got  _in?_ ” Fjord’s voice cracks as he fishes his phone out of his bag. “Caleb if you’re fucking with me tell me  _right now_.”

“I am much better than this person,” Caleb mutters, tapping at the keyboard. “He used a simple exploit, and he did not… fix the problem, so I have used the same one to get in also…”

Molly moves over to Caleb’s other side, looking at the screen a minute and then pressing his nose to Caleb’s temple. “Is it weird if I think you’re especially attractive right now?”

Caleb feels his face heat up, fingertips hesitating over the keyboard. Fjord leans around him to smack Molly’s horn. “Don’t distract ‘im right now! He’s saving the port’s ass!”

“It is fine, it is fine.” Caleb swallows thickly and gives himself a second, finalizing the changes. “Okay, I am, um, I am the SQL server should no longer… I am… I cannot, I cannot explain in English, but, I am admin now, and nobody can sneak in with code in user… user name…” He clears his throat. “Everyone but me is locked out, and the exploit will not work again, and now I will roll back, and then I will open up to… to new admin user profile…”

Molly tugs on Fjord’s sleeve. “You did this, okay?”

“What?”

“If there’s an investigation or something, you did what Caleb’s doing. He didn’t have anything to do with this.”

Caleb nods several times and pulls up the most recent files to use.

“Shit. Shit, okay.” Fjord’s phone is beeping several times in a row. “My dad says… okay, shit, so, I’m gonna-”

“Call him and explain so there is not a text trail,” Caleb mumbles.

“–what?”

“So there won’t be a paper trail of you admitting another person fixed it,” Molly says. “It’s refugee stuff, just go with it, he doesn’t want to get bothered by the cops.”

“Okay, okay.” Fjord takes one last wondering look at the screen before getting to his feet and walking away to make a call.

Nott takes Fjord’s space. “How much was this idiot asking for?”

“Twenty thousand euro. Um. Dollars.” Caleb watches the progress bar, a little frazzled.

“So you should get, like,” Nott looks to Jester, who sits up straighter and nods.

“A good Samaritan fee!”

Caleb turns to Molly for translation.

“Biblical reference, it means ‘good person who went out of their way’.”

“Oh.” Caleb shakes his head. “No, I, um, I never did this. Fjord did this, he is son of two employees and so, um. Very clear that he… he broke in for good intentions…”

“You really think they’d sue you for hacking in to give the site back from the first hacker?” Beau curls her lip. “Actually, fuck, who knows.”

“I do not want, um, to talk to… police, or whatever, please.” Caleb rubs at his face and clicks out before taking a few slow breaths. “This was dumb of me. I started to fix problem before… thinking of whether I should…”

“Fjord did it,” Molly says reassuringly, rubbing his arm.

“Fjord did it,” Beau agrees, looking to the others.

“Totally Fjord,” Jester agrees.

“Fjord Matrixed the fuck in,” Nott says seriously.

“Yes. Um. Okay.” Caleb pulls his notebook out of his bag, writing the new admin login and password on a scrap of paper and tearing it out. He waves Fjord over, who walks over and takes the scrap with a confused look before reading it.

“Oh. Jesus. Okay, dad, get a pen…” He mouths  _THANK YOU BRO_ before wandering a few yards away again with his phone.

“The company cannot give Caleb a good Samaritan fee because he did not have anything to do with this,” Jester says, looking around significantly, “but maybe they can give  _Fjord_  one, since  _he…_ ”

“Yeah,” Beau says, nodding excitedly.

“I do not need,” Caleb says, sending an email before handing Jester’s laptop back over to her.

“You could buy a second hoodie,” Beau teases.

Caleb frowns and Molly rubs his arm harder. “You don’t need to buy anything,” Molly reassures. “And you’re okay, nobody knows you helped.”

“You really can’t talk to cops?” Jester asks with a frown.

“I would like to not, please,” Caleb asks quietly.

“Done,” Beau says, and leans over to try to read Fjord’s expression. “We’ve got you.”

“Yeah,” Nott says, and Caleb almost misses the subtle thwack of Jester’s tail hitting Beau’s knee.

“Sorry,” Beau says flatly, all of a sudden. “Your hoodie is fine.”

Jester looks satisfied.

Fjord is jogging over, stuffing his phone in his pocket and kneeling down behind Caleb to wrap his huge arms around his middle. “Thank you thank you thank you thank you, they’re in, they’re - can I hug you?”

“Too late,” Nott laughs, just as Caleb says, “Yes.”

“ _Thank you_. That site has ship tracking and a ton of other stuff, it’s not just the customer shit, thank you, they were freaking out so bad…”

“You emailed yourself the info on the hacker,” Caleb mumbles, laying his arms across Fjord’s much bigger ones and giving them a squeeze.

“Huh?”

“You sent, from your email address to your email address, the IP address, other info you could get, on the extortioner…” That doesn’t sound right. He looks to Nott.

“Extortionist,” Nott provides. “Wow, Fjord, you’re super smart, you probably did that to… give to the cops later?”

“Yeah,” Beau says. “Fjord, you’re smart as shit.”

“Sure, whatever, Caleb, bro, you’re the  _best_ , man.”

“You too. Please, um, squeeze less.”

“Sorry.”

**

**Fjord (notebook): HEY my parents want to take us out to dinner for a prom thing but everything is bookeddd, so what if we do it like a week or two before**

**Jester (lollipop): YOUR PARENTS ARE SO NICE**

**Beau (collision): what’s the budget**

**Jester (lollipop): BEAU THAT’S RUDE**

**Beau (collision): its a valid question!**

**Molly: (drumstick emoji) wherever whenever**

**Nott (green fist emoji): what’s prom thing mean**

**Beau (collision): like, going to a fancy dinner before going to prom..?**

**Molly: nott do you not want to go?**

**Jester (lollipop): Notttttttttttttttt**

**Fjord (notebook): i figured we were going as a big group?? then its easier for closet issues??**

**Beau (collision): yeah mte**

**

**Me: Molly**

**Molly: ?**

**Me: will you go to the prom with me**

**Me: and also many other people in a big group**

**Molly: (blue skin blushing) yeah dummy**

**

**Jester (lollipop): it sucks that Beau’s huge amazon love is a senior or we could drag her along too**

**Beau (collision): shut upppppp**

**

**Me: will you go with us?**

**Nott **(green skin fist)**  : us??? youre going???**

**Me: it seems important to everyone. and it sounds safe**

**Me: you are my best friend and i would like it if you were there**

**Me: lots of us do not have dates**

**Nott **(green skin fist)**  : i dont care about that**

**Nott **(green skin fist)**  : i dont want one**

**Nott **(green skin fist)**  : i like having a bunch of friends instead**

**Me: (pink skin fist)**

**Nott **(green skin fist)**  : (green skin fist)**

**

**Me: nott and i are in**

**Jester (lollipop): YAAAAAAAAAY**

**Fjord (notebook): YEAH**

**Beau (collision): prom or dinner?**

**Me: both i guess? scheduling notwithstanding**

**Beau (collision): spot today’s new English word**

**Me: fuck you beau (pink skin smiling)**


	16. Chapter 16

“American portions are  _huge_ , I am just trying to pick something that…” Caleb looks up and smiles as Jester walks down the sidewalk, opening the restaurant patio gate and waving excitedly as Nott hails her down. “…that, um, I can save some for later.”

“Thank god for leftover bags,” Nott agrees, gesturing to her size.

“Do not lie to me, I have seen you eat a half dark meat chicken with two sides before.”

“Peruvian chicken is  _good_ ,” Nott says, unapologetic and grinning back at him. “Jester!”

Jester sits next to her. “Beau, come over on my other side, I have to show you two pictures on my phone.”

Beau shares a ‘this is gonna be a girly thing’ look with Fjord before getting out of her seat, picking up her bag and moving over. “Dresses?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Jester enthuses. “I think I found one that will work for you and your mom…”

Caleb shoots Nott a confused look.

“Her mom wants her to dress really femme,” Nott mutters, rolling her eyes.

Caleb blinks, but the girls are all already looking at something on Jester’s phone. Caleb leans to his right, now, toward Fjord. “Sorry, what is ‘fem’.”

“Short for feminine?”

“Ah, yes, thank you.” Caleb thinks about this. “Her mother wants to… there is a ‘v’ word. Live viciously through… but not viciously…”

“Vicariously,” Fjord supplies, giving him a ‘not bad’ look. “And yeah, exactly.” He leans around the empty seat and Caleb, to Nott. “Nott, do you get any of this shit? Wear more pink, don’t wear that neckline, blah blah?”

Nott makes a weird face and shakes her head. “I can wear whatever.”

“I have it,” Caleb says, clapping his hands together. “Beau, you will be Princess Peach. Your mother will be very happy, ja?”

Beau snorts.

“Nott, you will be Daisy to match.”

Nott smacks his arm as the others laugh.

“Wait, what am I?” Jester pretends to pout.

“Bowser,” Fjord replies quickly, eyes going round as Jester gets  _much_ madder than he anticipated and scoots her chair behind Caleb’s to kick at his leg.

“Rosalina,” Caleb corrects loudly, trying to save Fjord. “You get a cute chubby star that follows you around, and you are very pretty.”

“ _Very pretty_ ,” Fjord agrees, pulling his feet up on the outdoor chair to try to protect herself. “So pretty!”

**

Molly’s late to dinner, but after catching up on the drama he missed, he offers to be the chubby star.

**

**Fjord (notebook): remember you have to get him like at least six corsages**

**Me: uh huh**

**Fjord (notebook): please respect american culture**

**

Toya says that cats who can do tricks are more likely to be adopted - she shows Nott and Caleb a video of foster cats learning to ‘high five’ on command.

“Super cute,” Nott agrees.

“So I got,” Toya says, and looks over to Molly, who starts drumrolling on the table. “I.. I got… oh, dang, it’s in the other bag.” The others laugh as she moves the shopping bag aside and starts digging around in another one. “This!” She holds up a very small piece of orange fabric that’s connected to a lead. Caleb frowns at it a moment before realizing what it is.

“A - it is clothes? For Frumpkin?”

“A harness,” Toya confirms, grabbing some scissors in her tiny hand and cutting the tag off. “Some cats don’t like it at all, but he’s very young, and he likes adventure, so I think we have a good chance.”

Caleb shoots Molly a stunned look. “Did you put her up to this?”

Toya looks between them. “What?”

“Caleb lives for cats on leashes,” Nott tells her.

“I do. I really do.”

**

Frumpkin does pretty well until he gets to the azalea bush, which offends his good nature for some reason that nobody can quite figure out. He spends the next five minutes straining at the leash to swat at as many blooms as possible, making them tumble down onto the grass and his head. When one lands on his leg, he leaps about three feet in the air.

**

**Me: my suit is not great. i think you will look much better**

**Molly: idc what you wear, im just excited to go**

**Me: fjord said i should get you corsages**

**Molly: my hair stylist takes care of all my flowers thanks (manicure emoji)**

**Me: i will not get in the way of your professional**

**

Caleb spends two agonizing minutes waiting outside his apartment in a rented tux before noticing another couple in prom wear. No longer the only one in the area wearing something silly, Caleb relaxes a fraction, looking down at his phone and noticing a couple texts from Jester.

**Jester (lollipop emoji): beau’s parents are taking too long with her so we’re en route to you next**

**Me: I am already outside**

Caleb looks up the face of the building, toward his apartment window. His own parents had barely said anything to him as he left. He understands how they feel, but it still aches a little in his heart.

**Jester (lollipop emoji): remember. Nott looks GREAT. everyone looks GREAT**

**Me: yes. and pick a detail. i remember**

Caleb fiddles with the trouser pocket that almost doesn’t fit his phone, smoothing out the front of his jacket. He’s spent an agonizing few moments with Jester over text asking how to compliment Nott when she was out of her comfort zone, and he’d gotten something like a 1000 word essay on non-pervy compliments and women’s fashion. It was a little overwhelming, but he wasn’t the one that had to put on tulle or silk or whatever women’s prom dresses were made out of, so he had the better end of the deal.

There’s a light honk, and Caleb jolts to awareness - a short limo is at the corner of the street, and its lights flash. He looks around quickly and then jogs over, marveling at the things Jester’s mom can get on discount as the back door opens for him.

“H-hey,” Caleb says, smiling briefly at Jester and Nott before climbing in to the unusual back seat. It’s a rectangle of seating, all facing one another, and looks like it could fit about ten. Once he’s made sure the door is shut all the way, he looks at them both properly and blinks a few times. “Wow.”

“Aww,” Jester says, giggling and elbowing Nott. “See, I told you we look good!”

Nott, whose black dress shimmers a little as she squirms in her seat, smiles bashfully and waves at Caleb. “You look great too! You’re  _not_  swimming in it.”

Caleb looks down and plucks at the legs. “It is a little loose.” He feels the car begin to move again.

“You look fine, I promise.” Nott turns to Jester. “He was texting me like they’d given him a 5XL.”

“No, I just,” Caleb laughs and gestures to himself. “Very thin.”

“You’re  _svelte_ ,” Jester corrects with a dignified air.

“You two really do-” Where Nott’s dress is a simple cut with shimmery fabric, Caleb is taking in more and more details about Jester’s gown, which seems to have a couple different kinds of layers in the bottom portion, and shoes that are…  _not_  called humpback heels, but damn if he can remember the right word. “I think the yellow is nice on you.”

Jester smiles across at him, actually a little bashful, before looking down at her phone. “We’re gonna get Fjord next, and then maybe even Molly, I dunno, Beau’s trying not to have a meltdown and I don’t wanna push her.”

“Poor Beau,” Nott mutters.

Caleb frowns. “I thought you three went shopping and got everything…? And everything was okay?”

“We  _did_ ,” Jester says emphatically, sharing an exasperated look with Nott. “And we sent pictures to Beau’s mom, who was all, “‘Oh, whatever you get is fine, it’s your night’, but Beau said that was actually good because if she  _didn’t_  like it then she would be like  _are you sure about this or that_  and she didn’t, so, it should’ve been fine…”

Nott frowns. “It’s bad enough wearing stuff like this, I can’t imagine someone giving you a bunch of shit before you go out and see everyone.” She catches Jester’s frown and straightens a little. “I don’t mean I don’t  _like_  mine, I just mean… it’s sort of… vulnerable?”

Caleb nods and leans forward, looking at Nott’s face. There are little pockmarks and freckles that are usually there that he can’t see, and her eyebrow shape looks a little different, eyelashes a little darker… “You do look good,” he repeats. “Your makeup is good, and your dress also.”

Nott’s cheeks tinge a little darker. “You’re the sweetest.”

“I’m telling the truth,” Caleb says, and looks over at Jester as her phone beeps. “News?”

“Beau’s ready! Okay.” She leans to one side, grabbing two cardboard boxes that Caleb hadn’t noticed earlier.

“What are those?”

“Don’t worry about it.”


	17. Chapter 17

When they pull up to Beau’s house, it’s… more or less what Caleb expected, actually: a home built maybe ten or fifteen years ago, with an immaculate lawn and two shiny cars in the driveway. Beau is leaning up against a dogwood tree, holding still as her mom takes photos.

Beau is wearing a blue gown that reminds Caleb of… jazz singers? It’s like a slip, he thinks, low-cut in the front, with thin straps, and a long slit that goes up the thigh. Caleb can’t imagine why Beau settled on this one when she went shopping with Jester and Nott, although it’s no business of his as long as  _she_ likes it.

But Jester and Nott are muttering confusedly to each other as they pull up, and suddenly Nott straightens up to her full tiny height and grabs Caleb’s arm hard enough to bruise.

“You’re not in the limo,” Nott says very sharply. Caleb blinks and Nott gives him an Important Look. “We haven’t picked you up yet.” She jabs a finger toward the back corner of the car, the best place to hide when the door opens. Caleb wants to ask what the hell is going on, but he’s already unbuckling his seat belt, grabbing his phone off the seat, moving to scoot past the girls and past the darkly tinted windows to his new spot. Nott is saying something quickly to Jester, and then moving quickly to beat Beau’s dad to the car door.

“Hi!” Nott says really cheerfully, which tells Caleb that she’s still in Con mode. He’s seen Con mode a few times. He’s been  _part_  of it a few times. But he usually knows why Con mode is  _engaged_. “I’m Nott, and this is Jester.”

“Hello, Nott,” the human man says, and from Caleb’s angle he can only assume that the guy is reluctantly helping a goblin out of the limo, and then a tiefling. When he shuts the door after them, everything gets muffled, but he can hear Nott and Jester being cheery, saying something about the dress. Beau’s mother says something and her voice is… Caleb doesn’t like it.

“Where’s Caleb?” she asks; even though it’s hard to hear there’s no way Caleb is going to miss his own name. “Beauregard told us… …texted…”

Jester is apologizing, and then he can’t hear anymore, and then Nott’s louder and clearer as she cheerfully asks something about group pictures. Beau’s mom says no, although she sounds unhappy about something, and then it’s muffled again as people move around and the house’s door opens and shuts. Then the limo door opens, and Caleb dutifully presses himself tight against the corner of the seat and watches Nott’s expression as she clambers in, looking for a cue.

“We’re good,” she mutters, smiling tightly and looking back up at the house. “Stay there until we get around the corner.”

“Okay,” Caleb mumbles, and immediately forgets to ask what that was about when a long leg steps into the limo, in a low blue heel, and then Beau is clambering awkwardly in and throwing herself into the far corner, almost immediately breaking down into tears before Jester can even follow her in.

“I’m so sorry,” Nott is saying to Beau, who’s trying to pull the top of her dress up so she can lean forward and hide behind her arms. Nott scoots a little closer to her, awkwardly, and Beau makes a pained sound and waves her away. Jester climbs in between Nott and Caleb and pulls the door shut, rapping on the interior of the car to tell the driver to go.

“It’s okay,” Jester’s saying quietly, reaching a hand out and placing it on Beau’s knee.

“I fucking  _hate_ them,” Beau hiccups, curling tighter. The slit on her dress shifts and moves until it’s resting above her knee, exposing her leg, and she frets and tries to move it back to the side again.

“Caleb’s actually here,” Jester adds, and Beau looks confusedly at her before looking across the limo, jumping a little and then making a self-deprecating sound.

“Jesus– you– sorry. How did you know to hide?”

“I did not know,” Caleb admits, looking hopefully to Nott. “I… I am sorry you are sad… I do not know what is happening…”

“My parents are manipulative bastards.” Beau tugs miserably at her dress again and Caleb realizes that this must  _not_  be the dress they picked out.

“They made you wear, um, this one?” He gestures to the gown. Jester is pulling something out of her makeup bag, passing it to Nott, who nods and opens it and pulls out a wipe that she hands to Beau. She takes it and starts patting at her face.

“Mom  _‘accidentally’_  spilled coffee on my fucking… on … god, I hate her. She  _agreed_  to it. And she went back on her fucking promise and…” Beau curls up tighter and begins to cry in earnest. Caleb has never seen her be anything close to emotional and is trying not to get alarmed. “C-Caleb, can I maybe… borrow your jacket, or…”

“Yes,” he says quickly. “You can have it all night.” He leans forward and begins easing his tuxedo jacket off his shoulders when Jester catches his eye and shakes her head. “Yes!” he counters, continuing to take it off as he feels an indignant wave rise up in his chest. “If she does not want to show her… herself, she can have my coat! I do not-”

“I have something else,” Jester says, leaning over and patting Caleb’s knee. “Beau, she didn’t win, it’s okay. Take a deep breath. Pat under your mascara. You have something else to wear.”

Nott looks confused. Beau looks confused. Caleb feels  _very_  confused. He wriggles back until his jacket is resting properly on his shoulders, and- “Oh, the packages?”

“Yes,” Jester says, and a devilish sort of smile plays on her face as she leans to the side and pulls the two boxes into her lap. “Beau, I know you don’t like me spending a lot on you, but you are my best friend and the whole time Nott and I were having fun picking things you had to keep texting your family and compromising and that’s  _not fair_. You should wear whatever you want.”

Beau’s eyes are red and rimmed with tears as she stares at Jester. “Did you… go back and get the grey one?”

“No,” Jester says, biting her lip and pushing the boxes over. “I wanted to pick you up before Caleb so you could get dressed with just girls in the car, but, um, he can just turn around, maybe? Is that okay?” She looks at Caleb.

“Of course,” Caleb says, and actually begins taking his jacket off again, shaking it out and then wrapping it around his head in what he hopes is a comical and tension-cutting sort of manner. He hears Beau’s little snort and feels himself relax a little. At least he’s helping a tiny bit.

“Jester, how much did you-” Beau is talking and there are sounds of tape being pulled back. Caleb feels the sleeve of the jacket begin to drop down and he puts his hands over his face and turns to the side just to be extra clearly not looking.

“It doesn’t matter how much it cost,” Jester’s saying quietly. “I don’t care about my money. I just want you to be happy. You  _deserve to be happy_.”

“You do,” Nott is agreeing, just as Beau gasps and Caleb smiles behind his jacket. Whatever was in that first box was good.

“Are you  _serious?_ ” Beau is saying in a weak, high-pitched voice.

“You should be  _happy_ ,” Jester says again, and then the other box must be getting opened, and Nott is laughing delightedly, and then so is Beau.

“This is - will this fit me?”

“It was made for you,” Jester giggles. “It has, um, darts, you know, in the right places, it is cut for a lady to wear.”

“Jester, that is  _awesome_ ,” Nott says, and there’s a high pitched sound and the sound of cloth moving, and Caleb assumes that is a tight hug across Nott between Beau and Jester.

“I love you,” Beau says quietly, and then a little louder, “All of you.”

“Nott’s the one who thought to hide Caleb,” Jester adds.

“Why did we hide Caleb, again?” Caleb asks muffled through his jacket.

Beau mutters something unrepeatable under her breath and then there’s the sound of more cloth rustling. Nott says something Caleb doesn’t quite hear.

“Sorry, again? I cannot hear well under this.”

“There was an article written by an elf woman,” Nott repeats, speaking up a bit. “She was dating this half-elf and her family didn’t like that he wasn’t a ‘pure blood’, and she posted this depressing story about prom, when her family suddenly acted all nice and had everyone come in and take pictures…”

“Because somebody else was dating an elf?” Beau asks.

“Yup! Her best friend was dating a cute elf guy, and the parents just  _happened_ to be taking pictures of a bunch of different combinations of everyone…”

Caleb frowns behind his jacket. “So they made a ‘trick’ picture? Where it looked like she went with the other elf?” That doesn’t sound like a nightmare. Stupid, sure.

“It went  _everywhere_ ,” Nott says seriously. “On the fridge at their house, framed on her dad’s desk at work, it was the only one her mom uploaded to Facebook, everywhere she looked her parents were lying about her and reminding her what she was  _supposed_ to be doing and meanwhile it was just… this guy she knew from Chem class. Who was fine. But not her boyfriend of seven months.”

Caleb ruminates over this a while. “Those parents are shit,” he determines finally.

Jester laughs. “Well, Nott is a fucking genius, because I read that same article last week and I never thought to-”

“ _I am the elf from Chem class_ ,” Caleb realizes suddenly.

Beau snorts. “Yeah, buddy, you are.”

Caleb tries to imagine dating Beau and feels a weird, sick turn in his stomach. “Zat is so messed up.”

“It’s so messed up his accent went thicker,” Jester says, and Beau and Nott giggle.

“Shit, this  _does_  fit,” Beau says, and Caleb feels the curiosity reaching near-impossible-to-resist levels.

“What is it? Is it those baggy sweat pants you always wear? And a yoga t-shirt?”

Beau laughs. “Jester snuck into my house and stole it for me,” she jokingly confirms. “I’m almost decent, Caleb, thank you.”

“No problem.” It’s getting pretty hot in his little jacket cocoon, but he’s not about to complain. “But Jester will have to reapply all my makeup.”

The three girls laugh, and Caleb feels pretty proud for that joke. “Okay,” Beau says a few seconds later, and when Caleb lets the jacket fall down, Beau is buttoning up a men’s dress shirt. A women’s dress shirt? A dress shirt, and she’s wearing slacks, and nice shoes, and it actually doesn’t look too different from what he’s wearing, except with sleek black suspenders that are pooled at her hips, and nicer fabric. Nott is admiring the outfit while Jester bounces excitedly in her seat, shooting Caleb an Important Look.

“That looks fucking awesome,” Caleb says genuinely, and Beau barks out a laugh.

“Right? Jester’s the best.”

“She has very good taste,” Caleb agrees. “That is much more you. You look much happier.”

Beau nods once, fingers tracing over the collar, and she nods a second time Caleb can see her lower lip quivering again. She’s looking to Jester with an exhausted, grateful expression.

“It’s okay,” Jester says, reaching her hand out. Beau reaches out too and Jester squeezes tightly. “You won! You get to wear something great. You get to be yourself tonight.”

“Thank you,” Beau says, almost silently, and Caleb looks down and focuses on wiggling back into his jacket to give them a little privacy. When he straightens again, he can see they’re near Moondrop street.

“Molly is next?” he asks, and pushes down a feeling of nervousness.

“Yeah, he’s next closest since - oh, shit, I haven’t been checking my texts.” Jester sucks in a breath through her teeth and grabs her phone, beginning to tap. “He should be ready, though, I think he - yeah, okay, we’re good.”

“We’re good,” Beau confirms, pulling on her fitted tuxedo jacket and taking another fancy tissue thing from Nott when it’s offered. “We’re super good.”

“Super super good,” Nott agrees, reaching across Jester to put the tissue pack thing back into her makeup bag.

“Are  _you_  good, Caleb?” Beau asks.

Caleb realizes he’s tucking his hair behind his ears and stops. “Yes,” he says, still looking out the window. It’s a few houses yet.

“You look great,” Jester assures him, and Beau and Nott hum in approval. “You look mega cute.”

“There’s people on the lawn,” Caleb mumbles under his breath, and he recognizes the tall thin bald figure first - Gustav - and then the tiny quick figure must be Toya, and the almost still figure, even taller, must be Yasha -

\- Molly is wearing a  _sea foam green tuxedo_.


	18. Chapter 18

“Of fucking  _course_  he did,” Beau says, laughing. The pale green and lavender figure is doing a cartwheel on the lawn, but when Toya points at the approaching car and waves, Molly straightens and waves too.

“Where did he even  _get_  that?” Nott says wonderingly.

“Th, um, how do you say. Thrift shop.” Caleb blinks several times, staring through the safety of the tinted window - Molly’s hair is brushed and smooth, still curling in loose waves around his face, and his eyes are bright little crescents from his big smile. “He said he… he buys things, and… Mona sews them to fit better, and make room for his tail…”

The car stops, and Caleb straightens a little, feeling his heart beat faster, as Molly walks over and opens the door. “Quick question!” He singsongs. “Are digital photos okay if they only ever get printed out at home and and hung up in the house?”

Everyone looks to Caleb, awaiting his answer, and Caleb feels his face burning as he tries to play the English back again in his head. Molly’s wearing silver ear cuffs that match the rings on his horns.

“Um, again, please,” he requests.

Molly nods dutifully and repeats himself: “Gustav wants to take pictures on his digital camera, and then print them here, and hang them here. Is that okay?”

Caleb swallows and nods. “Ja. Thank you. For. Thank you.”

Molly’s already bouncing excitedly on his toes, leaning one hand on the hood of the car so he can reach a hand in and help Jester out. “You guys look great!”

One by one they pile out of the car, and Caleb thinks to give Beau a Bro Punch -  _you got this -_ on her shoulder before he comes out last. Yasha is wearing pajamas and sneakers, arms folded and smiling patiently as Toya circles everyone and begins asking questions about their outfits. Caleb tries to catch if she becomes distracted by Beau, who is  _definitely_  trying not to show off too obviously, but-

“Caleb!” Gustav’s voice pulls him to the other side of the lawn, and the man claps a hand on his shoulder. “Where do you wanna stand with Molly?”

“In front of the roses,” Toya chimes in, pointing. “Oh, that reminds me, hold on.” She tugs up the hem of what looks to Caleb like a Confirmation dress, scampering over to the corner of the small porch and grabbing a pair of plant shears. “ _Yasha said I could!_  Wait here, I’ve gotta go pick two.” Shears in hand, she pushes the screen door open and disappears into the house.

Everyone looks to Yasha.

“She wants to give you two button hole flowers,” Yasha says with a soft grin. “Molls, you mentioned that joke about corsages and that got her on a whole thing.”

“Buttonhole flowers?” Nott asks with a squint.

“Like…” Beau tugs at her own lapel, showing the top buttonhole, and Nott ‘ohs’.

“That’s kind of cute,” Nott offers.

“That’s adorable,” Jester coos.

Molly looks to Caleb. “You look really nice,” he says quietly. His tail flicks behind him and Caleb steps a little closer, meaning to bump shoulders with him before remembering Gustav and getting a little shy.

“You also.”

“Ladies, would you like a group shot while we wait?” Gustav holds up his digital camera. “Or have you all gotten photographed to death on the way here?”

Beau shares a look with Jester, then looks to Gustav. “Actually, we’ve been dodging them until now. Um, but, sure! And you can email them to us, or to Molly, and then he can…”

“Great!” Gustav waits until the three girls have arranged themselves in front of the roses, and Molly takes the moment to jerk his chin toward Beau.

“She looks  _awesome_ ,” He says quietly to Caleb. “I mean, they all do, don’t get me wrong.”

“Jester got it all for her,” Caleb replies with a smile. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see Molly’s eyebrows fly up in surprise. “Her parents tried to make her… Princess Peach. But Jester gave her that outfit in the limo.”

Molly’s mouth falls open a little. “That’s  _rad_ ,” he giggles, awestruck. “Jester’s great.”

“She is,” Caleb agrees fervently. In front of the roses, Nott is standing awkwardly in front, while Jester makes a peace sign and Beau smirks for the camera. Yasha, Caleb spots, is looking on with not a little interest. “She wants… everyone to be happy.”

Molly makes an agreeing sound. Caleb smiles as he feels the now-familiar brush of Molly’s tail against his calf, just for a moment, and then the screen door is opening again and Toya is clutching two vivid azaleas.

“I got ‘em!” She announces, and Caleb trots over and bends down enough that she can reach the top of his lapel. “Do- do you want one, are you sure?”

“Very sure,” Caleb replies seriously. “You picked them out yourself, ja? You got the best ones?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Toya says, clearly grateful that he understands. Her tiny fingers work the bloom until it’s settled nicely in the button hole. “They’re delicate, they might fall out or come apart, but at least you’ll have ‘em for a little while?”

“For the pictures,” Molly agrees, squatting down when it’s his turn and smiling at her. “You should get in a few shots with the other girls.”

Her face lights up and it’s suddenly very clear to Caleb that she was hoping for this opportunity. “Really?”

Molly looks over to the trio of girls. “Do you want to take a few with Toya?” He offers.

“Yeah!” Beau waves her over, and Jester smiles widely. “Come on over.”

“Yasha, you too,” Caleb adds, making the group laugh as Yasha looks down at her outfit.

“I might not match,” she says quietly.

“Doesn’t matter.” Molly waves it away dismissively. “It’s not about matching. Look at me, what the hell do I match?”

“The seafoam  _goes_  with the lavender,” Jester insists, scooting a little ways away from Beau to make a gap for Yasha to stand in. Yasha blinks and takes the space, and Caleb watches as Beau’s cheeks go a slightly darker tan.

“Cheese,” Gustav singsongs, and the camera snaps several times as the girls pose and then do funny faces.

“We can join theirs,” Caleb offers, looking to Molly. “For the ones you just print?”

Molly’s tail flicks up. “Yeah!” He takes Caleb’s hand, tugging him a ways and then arranging him next to Beau. Molly moves past him and stands next to Jester, bracketing the girls.

“You two should be standing  _together_ ,” Toya admonishes from the front. “You’re  _dating_.”

Caleb feels a weird great scary uncomfortable best thing ever sort of rush run up his spine, and when he comes back to his body Molly is saying

“-balancing out the photo!”

“They’ll take coupley ones in a minute,” Jester says soothingly, patting Toya’s shoulder. “C’mon, let’s look at Gustav.”

They do, and Gustav backs up a few paces, checking the small digital screen and then clicking a few more times. “Great,” he says finally, nodding as the group disperses. “Caleb, Molly, a couple of you two?”

“Sure,” Caleb says, closing the gap between himself and Molly. It’s hard not to stare at the ground. The idea of Molly’s - guardian? - being so uncaring about Caleb being a boy is great, of course, but it’s strange, hard to breeze through himself, as if he’s pushing a cart full of electronics out of a store as the security guards wave to him on the way out.

Molly takes Caleb’s hands, twining their fingers a little before looking up at Caleb’s face with a questioning look. Caleb smiles in confirmation and Molly’s ear tips twitch up. They turn to Gustav and beam.


	19. Chapter 19

Fjord’s house is last, and Caleb realizes that Jester’s picked an interesting time to check her makeup and hair. If anyone else notices, they don’t say anything - Molly is complimenting Beau’s outfit, seemingly oblivious, but when they turn a corner and Molly bumps his shoulder into Caleb’s, sending him an amused little look, Caleb’s pretty sure it’s about how Jester is holding her phone up and checking her angles.

When the limo starts to slow down, Caleb looks out the window to see Fjord in a simple rented tux, looking up from his phone and beginning to trot down the paved concrete walkway. The jacket, which is just big enough to go across his chest, is decidedly a little roomier around his stomach, and flaps a little as he jogs to the door that Beau is pushing open.

“Hey!” Fjord says to the car, bending down, and he seems to lose his train of thought a little as his gaze slows on Jester. “Um, I’m last!”

“You’re last!” Nott agrees, scooting closer to Beau to make a bigger gap between herself and Jester. “Get in! We’re almost sort of running on schedule!”

Fjord nods and clambers in - Beau hauls the door shut - and Caleb can feel the excited little flicks of Molly’s tail against his shin as Fjord gets settled and Jester smiles at him, forgetting to tap the glass to tell the driver he can continue on. Everyone waits in silence for a few moments before Nott, without comment, stretches up and taps on the glass with her nails.

The car begins to move again.

“Beau, I thought you got a dress,” Fjord says, jerking his chin to the suit.

Beau smirks and makes a show of spreading her legs far apart, dangling one over Nott’s lap and making her laugh. “Change of plans.”

“It’s great,” Fjord says. Caleb pulls his phone out as Fjord looks around, laughing at Molly’s suit: “You don’t surprise me at this point, man.”

“I’m very predictable,” Molly agrees.

**Me: Her hair clips are brand new**

Fjord’s phone cheeps and he frowns and fishes it out of his pocket. Molly starts to have a joking pose-off with Beau across from him, flipping his hair and adjusting his collar as she begins to do the same.

**Fjord: ??**

**Me: You’ve never seen those hair clips before!! Say that!!**

“Hold on, hold on,” Beau says as Jester begins to faux-beatbox, making Molly crack up. “I can…” She shoots her cuffs and does a Blue Steel face, arms crossed, and Molly immediately mirrors her.

Fjord puts his phone away and Caleb hears him say something to Jester, who stops beatboxing, but Caleb doesn’t quite catch it. Nott is holding up an invisible camera to take paparazzi photos of Molly, then Beau, depending on who she seems to think is doing better. Caleb pulls his own invisible camera up and joins her.

“Me,” Molly says out of the side of his mouth, pretending to look thoughtfully off at something in the distance while he plants his hand on his hip. “You have to pick me, we’re dating, it’s the rule.”

“I am an unbiased third party,” Caleb says mock-seriously, leaning forward as far as his seat belt will allow to take a fake close-up of Beau.

“This is America,” Beau agrees, pretending to toss much longer hair than she has over her shoulder. “He’s  _free_ to make his  _own choices_.”

“Mr. Tealeaf, Mr. Tealeaf,” Fjord says, shoving a nonexistent microphone toward Molly. “Who are you wearing?”

“I’m-”

“Who the fuck made that color suit, Mr. Tealeaf?”

Molly laughs. “I don’t know, but then they gave it to a charity shop, and then my sister darted it!” He gives a super-overdone wink to Fjord, and Jester laughs and leans into join in the fake photography.

“Ms. Lionette, Ms. Lionette!” Nott pretends to push a microphone toward Beau. “What are your thoughts on tall girls in pajamas?”

“No comment,” Beau says loudly over the laughter. As the limo slows, everyone looks up to see a line of traffic leading to entrance of the school. “God damn, what takes people so long to get out of their cars?”

“Heels,” Jester says darkly, squinting at a slim half-elf who’s trying and failing to pull of some stilettos. Each step makes the girl look more and more like a newborn calf.

“We can’t all be as fashionable and perfect as you, Jester,” Nott says.

“She’s going to  _roll her ankle_ ,” Jester says, frustrated and gesturing. The limo inches forward a bit and several cars block their view.

“Too bad you bailed on those first aid classes your mom signed you up for, or you could help the poor girl.” Fjord smirks.

“It was  _boring_  and the CPR dummies smelled like  _gross old rubber_.” Jester rolls her eyes.

Molly ‘awws’. “You didn’t wanna make out with the gross fish mouth?” He takes on a vacant, staring-forward expression with his mouth hanging open.

“We’re almost up,” Beau says, and they turn and realize that the drop-off spot is closer up than they thought. Everyone grabs their phones, and Jester dumps her makeup bag into the tuxedo box with the folded-up reject dress.

“What will you do with that?” Caleb asks.

“It’ll all go in my locker,” Jester says dismissively. “Most of the school is locked off for this stuff, but since mine’s right by the gym door I can get to it.”

“Go time,” Fjord singsongs, and everyone unclicks their seatbelts. Molly and Caleb pile out first, helping the girls out, and Fjord clambers out last and shuts the door behind him. Jester gives a friendly wave to the driver, who gives her a stoic nod.

Caleb looks at the school, frowning. It’s a little odd to see it when everything’s so dark, but the booming music coming from inside makes it a little surreal. He knows American proms tend to be really noisy affairs, but in movies, the audio levels make it all seem much more… survivable.

Several people are slowing or stopping entirely to stare, at least momentarily, at Molly’s outfit.

“Does anyone other than Jester have a bag?” Fjord asks, looking around. Caleb looks too, and then ahead, realizing there’s a fold-out table by the front door where a man is using a wooden stick to check through bags.

“American security,” Caleb murmurs. “I am still surprised every time.”

“Oh, it’s not a weapon thing,” Nott says dismissively. “Kids sneak booze in. Drinking age, remember?”

“Oh! Oh, that makes sense.” He files into line, smiling as Molly stands next to him and taking the opportunity to take a half-step into his space.

Molly smiles at him, ducking his head a little and looking Caleb over. “{You look pretty,}” he says slowly.

Caleb feels his cheeks burn as he looks away, then back to Molly. “{You look good too.}” Some humans cluster around behind him, taking selfies together, and Caleb uses it as an excuse to huddle closer to Molly, out of the shots, and loosely wrap his fingers around Molly’s. “{I still can’t believe you’re interested in me.}”

Molly tilts his head, red eyes glowing in the dim light. “{I don’t understand.}”

“{I like potatoes.}”

Molly snorts.

The line moves forward, and when Caleb has to take his hand back to scratch his nose, Molly’s tail grabs his wrist as soon as it’s within reach again. Caleb laughs.

“(The orc likes the tiefling,}” Molly says, jerking his chin up ahead a little. Caleb turns, already knowing who to look for - Fjord is holding still as Jester uses his shoulder for balance, leaning on one foot and adjusting a strap on her heels. It’s too dark to see if Fjord’s blushing or not, but there’s a funny, anxious softness around his eyes that Caleb really likes seeing.

“{Yes,}” he agrees. “{Also, half-orc.}”

“{Half-orc,}” Molly repeats, nodding. “{Half-orc. Half-orc.}”

“{The tiefling likes the half-orc,}” Caleb adds.

“{Much much likes.}” Molly waggles his eyebrows.

Beau turns around, squinting. “Are you guys speaking  _elvish_  back there?”

“No,” Caleb says, just as Molly says, “Yes.”

Beau snorts. “You two are nerds.”

Jester’s bag makes it through security, and then they’re walking through the doors, where the base of the music becomes clearer and more insistent in Caleb’s rib cage. He recognizes the song from the radio but can’t place it exactly. 

“This is the girl with the pony tail,” Caleb realizes aloud, pointing to the gymnasium where the music is coming from.

Jester laughs and trots over. “I’m sorry, I have to hug you.” She lifts her arms up and Caleb bends at the waist a little, allowing it. She smells a little like a garden. “You’re like a sweet old man.”

“Ariana Grande’s not popular in Germany?” Molly asks.

“How would I know? I am a nerd.” He gives a little joking grin, but some nervousness must leak out, because Molly’s right ear ticks back a moment and then he’s standing closer to Caleb, through the mix of hallway traffic as they get to Jester’s locker.

And for such a popular event, the hallway is  _packed_  - the other students seem just as eager to dip out of the gym and talk outside it as they are to crush themselves back into the fray.

Molly is looking at him, mouth opening a moment before he’s conjugated his sentence: “{You are… good?}”

The usage of ‘good’ is technically wrong, but Caleb understands what Molly’s driving at. “{I am… mostly good.}” Jester and Nott, currently without pockets, stash their phones away and Jester pushes the locker shut with a little bit of resistance from the bulging makeup bag. “{I don’t know what this is but I’ve been thinking about asking you to come to it with me, almost the first time I saw you.}”

“We’ve lost Caleb,” Fjord announces flatly. “I think he’s reciting elf poems.”

“That was not a poem,” Caleb says with a put-out expression. “I am fine.”

“Nope, you’re on Nerd Demo Mode.” Beau reaches around behind him, brushing his fingers against the nape of his neck - Caleb flinches back suddenly, away from the contact, and Beau snatches her hand back and tries not to look too surprised. Caleb realizes that she was jokingly pretending to look for some kind of reset button, a continuation of the joke, but it’s too late. Molly definitely noticed, and Fjord’s turned around too.

“You - you wiggled my mouse,” Caleb says loudly, smiling. “I am back!”

The group seems to accept the attempt to brush past the odd behavior, but they’re quieter now as they cluster together and move toward the nearest gym entrance. Caleb swallows and follows tightly behind Fjord, Jester, and Beau. They’re making a very convenient arrow shape that’s easy to tuck into.

The music has turned to something with even more bass, and Caleb pushes back the instinct to cover his ears a bit. It’s a few steps before he realizes the reason nobody’s crushing in on his left side is because Nott is there. She pretends not to notice him notice her, but when he looks up again, he feels a tiny hand grab his and squeeze.

He squeezes back.

“{I really like potatoes,}” Molly says in his ear, at his right.

Caleb nods faintly. “{They are good.}” He’s got to raise his voice a little to be heard, but he feels a little more himself, like he can take full breaths.

“{No. I  _really_  like potatoes.}” Molly inches a little closer and brushes his lips against Caleb’s cheek, and at the edge of his vision, Caleb can see the tips of Molly’s fangs in a gentle smile. “{Potatoes are my favorite.}”

“Oh,” Caleb says, head dipping down as he grins. “{I… I am potatoes.}”

“{You are  _my_  potatoes.}”

Caleb laughs. Jester makes it through the door, Fjord and Beau behind her, and keeping formation, they manage to squeeze in without getting separated.

The gym is a mix of very dark and very bright, with some strobe lights and other effects alternating across the room and along the ceiling and walls. Once his eyes adjust, Caleb realizes that there’s several huge open spaces in the middle of the dance floor - at least half the students are on the periphery, on their phones, talking and pointing with friends, or just standing alone.

“I can’t,” Fjord is saying, only barely audible, and Caleb looks and sees Jester and Beau looking at him with amused expressions.

“You just  _do it!_ ” Jester is saying, miming a quick dance move where she makes loose fists and waves them around. “It’s what you came here for!”

“I came here to - to hang out, not to, I don’t know,” Fjord says with a half shrug. “I’d just look stupid.”

“ _Look at Molly’s suit_ ,” Caleb enunciates, pointing to it. Molly, right on cue, hops into a presentation-like pose where he gestures to himself. The group laughs, giving Caleb a boost of confidence. “Nobody is looking at anything but this color! You are safe!”

Molly strikes a second pose. “I am a beacon of attention!” he bellows dramatically, causing several people to turn and look at him. “Watch! As the lavender tiefling does the cabbage patch!”

Fjord rolls his eyes, trying not to grin too obviously as Molly makes good on his promise. “Okay, okay,” he says. “We all goin’?”

“Yes,” Nott says decisively, looking up at Caleb.

“Ja,” Caleb agrees. “One big dumb circle.”

“One big dumb circle,” Beau echoes. “Let’s go be those guys!”

“Those guys!” Jester agrees loudly, cabbage patching along next to Molly as they move toward one of the open spaces.

**

Half an hour later, when they’re laughing and sweaty and twenty minutes past caring if anyone’s looking or not, Caleb gathers up some newfound courage. He moves a little away from the group, facing Molly, and Molly pulls away immediately to dance across from him, just the two of them. It’s not graceful or particularly on trend but Molly’s hair is in his eyes a little, in loose curls and waves around his earrings, and he looks so  _happy_. Caleb has to. He’s got to.

He leans in a little and says it, near the vicinity of Molly’s shoulder, but when he straightens up again, Molly frowns at him, indicating he didn’t hear. Caleb laughs self-consciously and dances a little closer, aiming more for his ear this time and saying it again. Molly backs up just enough to catch Caleb’s eyes again; his expression says he missed it again but wants to know what it is.

Caleb feels his face burning, but he takes a breath and says it much louder this time, surprised when Molly stops dancing. He wasn’t sure how Molly would react, but he didn’t expect him to -

\- everyone has slowed down or stopped dancing.

The DJ is transitioning between tracks.

Caleb looks back at Molly, eyes wide. “Did everyone hear that?”

Molly is blinking rapidly. “I. Think so,” he confirms. He looks like he’s not quite sure what to say, but as they stand there, new, quieter slow music starting up, Molly’s grinning again, bigger, and his tail is curling in the way Caleb  _knows_ he understands now. He grins goofily and takes a little step toward Molly. Molly steps forward too.

The vocals of the song start up. Molly wraps his arms loosely around Caleb’s shoulders, tilting his forehead forward until they’re touching. Caleb closes his eyes and smiles, content with that, starting to sway a little.

“I gotta start paying attention in Elvish class,” someone behind Caleb is muttering to their partner. “I could’ve sworn that human just said he loves potatoes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (fin)
> 
> [](https://ivadeshin.tumblr.com/post/183899084910/caitercates-is-an-unbelievably-wonderful-and)  
> (by caitercates. see [the full drawing here](https://ivadeshin.tumblr.com/post/183899084910/caitercates-is-an-unbelievably-wonderful-and))

**Author's Note:**

> Come hang out on [tumblr](https://ivadeshin.tumblr.com/).


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